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The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has said the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has become unpopular among Nigerians, noting that the growing defections into the ruling party will not guarantee its victory in 2027.
The coalition was reacting to comments credited to the APC National Chairman, Dr. Nentawe Yilwatda, that “key ADC figures” would join the ruling party next week.
Yilwatda, who spoke at a stakeholders’ meeting in Jos, noted that key ADC figures would be received into the APC next week, adding that the said ADC chieftains had concluded their medicals and would soon be unveiled.
“Next week, I will be receiving some notable figures from the ADC. Some of those who had earlier defected from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the ADC are now returning to the APC.”
“In another two weeks, we will unveil yet another big figure who just finished his own medicals. He tried to unveil himself the day before yesterday, and you may have seen it in the news. But officially, we’ll be receiving him soon,” Yilwatda said.
Reacting to the comment, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, ADC’s National Publicity Secretary, said the scramble for membership from across the political spectrum by the APC underscores the party’s realisation that it has become “hugely unpopular with ordinary Nigerians who now hate the ruling party for the hardship it has brought upon them.”
Abdullahi maintained that the statement by the APC National Chairman underscored a deep realisation by the ruling party that it cannot be saved even if all the governors in Nigeria defected to the ruling party.
“This is why even with all the governors and senators they have been bragging about, the APC is still desperate for ADC members.”
“The truth remains that the APC realises that it has become the most hated party in Nigeria, and no amount of defections can save the party from Nigerians whose lives and livelihoods the ruling party has destroyed since it came to power.
“Like we have noted earlier, the recent gale of high-profile defections to the ruling party is properly understood by ordinary Nigerians as a gang-up against the people by a ruling elite who have left the people behind in abject poverty and are only interested in self-preservation even as their people wallow in misery.”
The coalition wondered if the APC has run out of governors to seduce that it has now turned to shadowy references to unnamed ADC members, arguing that the Chairman would have mentioned the names of the individuals if they were prominent.
“It is the same ruinous game that the PDP played at the height of its powers. The APC will also learn the bitter lesson that real democratic power lies with the people and not a few power merchants.”
