• ADC yet to reach level of zoning- Chieftain.

The lull in political activities in most opposition parties few months to the party primaries for the 2027 general elections, has been attributed to the ambition of the former vice president, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has given political parties wishing to participate in the 2027 general elections, between July 1 and September 30, 2026, to conduct their congresses and conventions towards selecting their candidates for the elections.

But except the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) which held its recently disputed national convention, most of the opposition parties are still battling to organise themselves. Atiku had mooted the idea of a united opposition parties, shortly after the 2023 general elections, so as to be able to defeat the ruling party.

He had told the leadership of Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC) who visited him in November 2023: “We have all seen how the APC is increasingly turning Nigeria into a dictatorship of one party. “If we don’t come together to challenge what the ruling party is trying to create, our democracy will suffer for it, and the consequences of it will affect the generations yet unborn.”

The former vice president, who was then a member of the PDP, was the party’s presidential candidate in 2019 and 2023. He later resigned from the party in July this year and joined the coalition platform, the African Democratic Congress (ADC) last month.

He has since declared interest in the party’s ticket for 2027. An opposition politician, who spoke to Sunday Telegraph, expressed disappointment that Atiku still wants to contest the 2027 presidency. According to him: “When he was calling for unity among opposition parties, we didn’t know it is for his presidential ambition in 2027.

We expected him to announce his retirement from politics. “This is the person, who has been contesting the presidency of the country since 1993. Most of us wanted him to be a fatherfigure, to mentor younger politicians.”

Atiku, who served as Nigeria’s vice president between 1999 and 2007, has been in the presidential race since 1993. Except in 2003, even though he aspired but later agreed to run with President Olusegun Obasanjo for a second term in office, the former vice president had contested every presidential primary since the country’s return to civil rule in 1999, and was a candidate three times – the defunct Action Congress (AC) in 2007, and PDP in 2019 and 2023.

After the Supreme Court dismissed his petition against the election of President Bola Tinubu in 2023, many Nigerians expected him to announce his retirement from active politics. But the former vice president, at a press conference, said he is in politics for life. Said he: “I am not going away.

For as long as I breathe, I will continue to struggle with other Nigerians, to deepen our democracy and rule of law, and for the kind of political and economic restructuring the country needs to reach its true potential.” His ambition is believed to be holding ADC down.

The party, which attracted many opposition politicians, including elected members of the National Assembly at its unveiling in July this year, is still struggling to find its footing. Though former Rivers and Kaduna State governors, Chibuike Amaechi and Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, who were associated with the party have since formalised their membership, but the candidate of the Labour Party in 2023 presidential election, Mr. Peter Obi, is yet to register.

Obi had requested that his membership be delayed until after the November 8 Anambra governorship election. But over a month after, he is yet to honour his promise. One of his associates, who said Obi will make a his future political ambition known by second week of January, however expressed reservation at the structure of the party at the moment.

According to him, some of the promoters of the ADC are Atiku’s acolytes, who are disposed to his ambition. Obi had wanted the party to zone its ticket for the 2027. But the National Publicity Secretary, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, said the ADC was yet to discuss zoning issue now.

A member of Atiku think tank however wants the coalition partners to unite to be able to defeat President Tinubu and APC in 2027. The source, who craves anonymity said, “The product of this coalition is about the unity of this country. If this coalition is not going to address it, then there is no merit in it.”

He argued that Atiku’s presidency would address the imbalance between the North and South. “The coalition must first and foremost address that -that we are all Nigerians, and we must all be partakers of this country equally,” he added.

The source, who described the Tinubu presidency as “insult to Nigeria,” expressed the fear that should Obi and Atiku fail to work together, it would pave the way for Tinubu to return in 2027. According to him, Atiku promised to do one term and handover to a South easterner.

“He promised to do one term. At a meeting he had with leaders of South East, he reminded them that all the time he contested for presidency, he picked Igbo man as his running mate. “Atiku is going to honour his promise. All we need is to team up and push this man out,” he requested.

But another former Chieftain o the PDP, who is currently working with the ADC said that the party was still working inside and has not reached the point of talking of zoning. He said what was important now was for those interested in taking Nigeria back from APC to bury their ambitions and work for the success of entrenching the party. “What is not in doubt is that Tinubu must go in 2027.

Whether Atiku, Obi or Amaechi or El Rufai, the main objective is to remove the APC from the way they are rubbishing Nigeria since 2015. That’s the focus now, not where the presidential candidate of the party will come from. We need to work together with all stakeholders to achieve that”, he said.