• ‘We need to take Nigeria to a new direction’

Chief Ralph Nwosu is the founder and former National Chairman of African Democratic Congress (APC). In this interview, he insists the party will be on the ballot in the 2027general elections despite antics of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), FELIX NWANERI brings the excerpts

As the founder and a former national chairman of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), what is your position on the current leadership tussle in the party?

For us, we are not alarmed, but I don’t want to say that it’s the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC); it is Prof. Joash Amupitan, who, on his appointment as chairman of the commission, is an APC member, it seems that he has been deployed to create what does not exist in the ADC.

So, basically, they have a special budget which they call anti-coalition budget. They have been using that anti-corruption budget, which has unlimited amounts in it, to cause confusion in every party.

They used it to cripple the Labour Party (LP), used it to cripple Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), used it to hurt a lot of the political parties that are even now not in existence. We have resisted them for the last two or three years that they’ve been after ADC, and we will continue to resist them. We need to take Nigeria to a new direction.

They’ve been on their plots on how they can deal with this? Recall that after our programme in Kano, what we successfully did was that all the opposition figures in Nigeria identified with the ADC. Recall that from the last INECannounced results, the number two person was Atiku Abubakar; the number three in the 2023 result that Tinubu was number one is Peter Obi, number four is Rabiu Kwankwaso, and then number five, number six, and so on and so forth.

Nothing can stop ADC from being on the ballot and from contesting the 2027 elections, and nothing can stop the Nigerian people from producing the next president

They’ve all teamed up and came into ADC. While the All Progressives Congress (APC) was busy bringing all the governors, senators and House of Representatives members and states Assembly members into their fold, we have the key opposition leaders. Because of this, they now see that they cannot write a result because as far as Tinubu is concerned, he’s only interested in returning.

He doesn’t even care about all other persons. But they now saw that if the three major opposition leaders and all others who contested the election and got votes have come together now, and their votes put together from the 2023 election, is double of what Tinubu was declared president with.

It means that in 2027, there’s nothing they can do to convince anybody that they may win the 2027 election even with their expected written results. So, they are coming for the ADC jugular but they will fail. In fact, they have failed because leading to this coalition, all the processes that we followed, all the stages and all the executives, the National Executive Committee (NEC), state, zonal and national officers of the party were involved, including INEC, and everything was done clearly and well.

So, for Amupitan to say that he had a judgment and decided to leave an organisation like ADC without leadership is treacherous. His malicious intent cannot work. ADC is intact, and as far as we are concerned, every institution, including INEC, is owned by the Nigerian people.

What we will do is if INEC continues on its stupid ride where Amupitan continues being the driver is that we’re going to resort to reporting to the Nigerian people; we will put it in all the media platforms because Nigerians own all the democratic institutions. So, nothing can stop ADC from being on the ballot and from contesting the 2027 elections, and nothing can stop the Nigerian people from producing the next president. So, we are not perturbed.

Can you take us to the very foundation of this coalition; I mean how it all started and whether it met the required standard?

I think in May 2024, I and the National Secretary of the party, Alhaji Said’u Abdullahi, signed a letter inviting our members to a NEC meeting. At the NEC meeting, INEC was present and everything went well and we said that the way things are going, we needed to open up our party, so that all interested parties can come in. Therefore, we invited interested persons, who wanted a good country.

Before then, there was this lingering case we had, where some people were taking the party to court. And the same people came back to us to make peace. Then they wrote to INEC for them to use Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) process to make peace. INEC obliged them and wrote to us. We went for the ADR, they said, we sacked them and that if we reinstate them, they’re going to go and withdraw the case in court.

We were not bothered because we know that the case in court meant nothing. But at the same time, we want harmony, so we said, okay, go ahead. INEC was there. Later, the issue was resolved. Afterwards, the NEC called the people and asked: ‘Do you want us to go into a coalition or not?’ They all voted for it; INEC was there. They all voted and said: ‘Let’s do coalition; we are tired of doing this small party that after every election, every four years, we continue.’

So, for everything leading to this coalition, all of us were in agreement. After that, we held another meeting with some of these people who were interested in joining us. They came as observers. They saw that all our members are interested in building a coalition. Then from there, we moved again. We amended the clause in our constitution which would stop new members from immediately contesting for elective positions under ADC platform.

INEC was there also. We did that because, initially we had said anybody coming into our party will take two years before he or she can be an officer or even contest an election because of our past experiences. So, the NEC sat and removed all the clauses that will make it impossible for people to come in and hold positions or contest elections immediately because we were opening up for the coalition. We had about five different meetings, dealing with the nitty-gritty for the coalition to be solid.

Eventually the leadership of the party, the National Working Committee (NWC) went to the other stakeholders and said, come, let us do this. In the NWC, we agreed that ADC will produce this number of persons, PDP will produce this number, APC and CPC together will produce this number, and Labour Party will produce this number.

That’s why PDP produced the national chairman in the person of David Mark, APC and CPC produced the national secretary in Rauf Aregbesola. Before then, we had insisted on the organising secretary because we were going to let a lot of our executives resign.

We said if they resign, let the person who will be the organising secretary make sure that they are always sent on one assignment or the other, so that they wouldn’t feel any sense of marginalisation. We insisted but when Labour Party said that’s the position that it wants, we conceded. So, Labour Party produced the organising secretary, and then the whole team agreed that ADC should produce the national treasurer.

We had a clear agreement on this. But before we started the filling, we had a serious meeting. Who are the strategic persons who can do critical jobs at this time because this is a very serious job? It was daunting.

It shouldn’t be just any person to be this or that. After that, to show that they are all in agreement; I mean former office holders were all in agreement and they wrote a resignation letter and submitted it to the national secretary and I. Two of us were the last persons to leave the NEC.

Did they leave their various positions immediately they resigned because of the proposed coalition?

You know when people resign, it’s until you reply to them to say their decision has been accepted that it would look valid. Our people resigned in May and gave their letters but we said, continue your job, we will reply to your letters later.

So, it took till, I think, the end of July before we replied them. By that time, the process was over. And that was about the time the national secretary and I also resigned. But before we resigned, we held another NEC meeting comprising all the 36 state chairmen and Abuja. All the chairmen of the six zones and their executives were also there, and then the National Working Committee – about 118 persons – and we had a resolution.

The resolution was moved by the zonal chairman (SouthWest) that the NWC and zonal leadership be dissolved. INEC representatives were present and the motion was adopted by everyone. We then moved for our own to be dissolved. Nafiu Bala was present while all these happened.

He resigned; we have the letter but I now hear that it is a matter of contest. He resigned with others. But whether he resigned or not, the NEC, comprising over 120 persons something dissolved the NWC and zonal leadership. So, if a NEC that acted as a convention moved to do that, then you’re dissolved.

Bala claims that his signature was forged in the said letter of resignation; what will you say about it?

If anybody says that, it then means that it was either I forged the signature or the secretary forged the signature. If it is so, then they can take us to court. But the important thing about it is that the entire body was dissolved. That is, the NEC dissolved what was in existence but you know that everything has become contentious.

The point is that even in the constitution, there is what we call a quorum, just as it is known. If you have a quorum of over a quarter of the people, it will carry the day. So, no matter how they go about it, this is just Amupitan, who is an APC member, doing a hatchet job.

You keep blaming the INEC chairman on this issue, but some people have pointed accusing fingers at the APC-led Federal Government. Are you in any way seeing the hand of Esau and the voice of Jacob in the whole drama?

Amupitan is an APC cardcarrying member, so he’s playing the APC card. That’s what he’s doing. That is President Tinubu’s game plan. Remember when Tinubu was the governor in Lagos, he made sure that no other party contested elections in the state, and he did that successfully from 1999 till date.

Now that he became president, he decided that’s what he wants to do. It’s very unfortunate but I can assure you that they cannot get through with this. We don’t have a chairman in INEC; what we have is an APC attack dog.

Given the fact that it is just less than one year to the presidential election, what is the ADC going to do in order to be on the ballot?

The issue is not about ADC because I’ve had some people say people are moving to this party or that party. So, the issue is not with ADC, just like the issue was not with Labour Party, the issue was not with PDP.

The issue is that the President, in his mind, thinks he can do with Nigeria what he did in Lagos, by putting all the parties in his pocket. Unfortunately for him, the ADC has resisted this. I have to tell you that all these institutions, including the presidency, are owned by the Nigerian people.

That’s how democracy works. Whether it’s INEC, whether it’s the judiciary, whether it’s the presidency; all of them are owned by the people as far as democracy is concerned. So, if Amupitan says he will not receive documents from the ADC, we will put all the documents before the Nigerian public, in all the newspapers, in all the television stations and in all the radio stations for Nigerian people to be aware. We will do everything transparently, and we will contest this election and win, except if Amupitan wants to collapse our democracy but we will not allow him to do that.

When Tinubu was the governor in Lagos, he made sure that no other party contested elections in the state… Now that he became president, he decided that’s what he wants to do

Is ADC not worried that the outcome of its national convention would be invalid and the experience of Zamfara and Bayelsa states may play out should a candidate win under your platform? Who was referring to what happened in Zanfara State?

Is the same Amupitan? Is Amupitan, the chairman of INEC, the law itself ? What Amupitan is doing is bad. Maybe, after trying to decimate ADC, he should go to ADC and contest the election, and then what happened in Zamfara will happen.

Is INEC chairman supposed to be saying so? But that’s what he’s saying and that should tell Nigerians something, that they’re paying him to try to decimate ADC and we are going to sue him for that. I can assure you, nothing will happen.

The ADC will be on the ballot, and the ADC candidates will be elected. And for what they are doing now, ADC candidates will be elected for the presidency and across the whole constituencies for the National Assembly. Also, at the governorship level and at the National Assembly level, ADC will take the APC broom and sweep out all the governors that have gone to them and every other person there.

How much of trust do you have in INEC for saying this because currently INEC is at the lowest ebb in terms of public trust?

I have trust in INEC as an institution, but I don’t have trust in Amupitan, APC and Tinubu as well as all the appointed members of the commission because they may all be in the same shoes, except if some of them start to come out to say something. Until some commission members come out to say no and to confess to Nigerians, all of them are in the same shoes.

Precisely, what is ADC going to do in this situation because as it is it is not recognised by INEC and what is the immediate quick fix solution Nigerians will see from party?

The umpire should go. Nigerians have said that Amupitan should go. If Amupitan goes, then an unbiased umpire will look at the documentation because all of this documentation is properly warehoused in INEC, like Bala’s resignation letter and all the motions that were moved leading to David Mark’s coming. David Mark is a thoroughbred guy.

As a general, he’s not seeking anything. Even politically, he has held the highest positions. He’s not contesting for president. He’s also not contesting for vice president.

He’s been the president of the Senate for about two or three times. He’s been a minister. So, he has seen everything. Because of that, ADC stakeholders went to him and said, come and help salvage this country, come and help save our democracy. So, if the process didn’t go well, he wouldn’t come.

He doesn’t need it but he put himself because he wants to save this country, and that’s why when we went to him to say come in, he accepted. And if we say we are moving on, take it that we are moving on, nothing will happen. Is APC going to leave the presidency and most of the governorship seats and National Assembly seats when the election is held? Yes and you can take that to the bank.