Dele Momodu is a chieftain of the African Democratic Congress (ADC). In this interview, he speaks on the 2027 general election, concerns over voter confidence, party dynamics, the strength of opposition politics and the credibility of institutions, among other issues, ANAYO EZUGWU reports
The APC controls 30 to 31 states and the 2027 general election is looking more like a fait accompli for the ruling party and incumbent president. What does this portend for Nigeria’s democracy?
It portends desperation. It portends pretense. It portends make-believe. It portends might is right; I am big and I can get anything I want. Everybody is with us, so when we declare ourselves, nobody will doubt us that we truly won. But it means nothing based on previous experience and our contemporary history. I will go back to just about three years ago, when we had the last general election, and I will start with the G5 governors.
Five governors from PDP decided to support the All Progressives Congress (APC) from their own party. Three of them decided to test their popularity as incumbent governors in Benue, Abia, and Enugu states. All three of them failed woefully. So, it tells you that being a governor does not confer on you the power of life and death.
So, if you have 31 governors, it means nothing to us. It’s just that alibi that they want to create that they are in control of life and death, they are the owners of Nigeria and nobody can beat them in an election. You can see it from all the braggadocio that is ongoing. Just one election in one city or the Federal Capital City of Abuja, they had to declare a curfew. That was not enough. The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory became the Inspector General of Police, who had to personally supervise police stations across the city.
But he said that was to ensure that all was well… Where do you do that?
It was an act of desperation. How many places are you now going to declare state of emergency during the general election? So, it’s clear to me that I have no doubt that if we hold that election today, APC will lose. The fear of ADC is the beginning of wisdom. Just look at the line-up and compare it to how APC came to be in 2015. Go and look at the line-up. How many people came together at that time, and how many people are now rushing to ADC?
So, you will see clearly that they are afraid. They are in tatters. In fact, they are already fighting themselves. All the goodies and the bazaar that they promised whosoever comes to their party, they are not able to deliver. Now, they are running helterskelter.
They are not even sure who their vice presidential candidate will be. They don’t know whether it is going to be a Christian or a Muslim. They are in disarray. In Delta, they are fighting because the governor who left us and went to join them has a lot of people to contend with. And it’s like that almost everywhere. They are making promises that they cannot keep. So, I actually pity them. Of course, they are hiring propagandists, telling lies from both sides of their mouth. Insecurity is at its worst ever in Nigeria.
Remember that just some years back, under Goodluck Jonathan, and I will continue to apologize to him, one lady was unfortunate to have been kidnapped, we had people traveling all over the world campaigning for her release.
So, how many people are you going to travel around the world to campaign for now? It got so bad that even the Obamas and everybody were doing campaigns to release the Chibok girls. Today, how many people are you going to campaign for their release? I’m not even counting the dead. Please, let’s stop playing politics.
We’re all guilty of something. Right now, the situation is so bad that we are all complicit of that culture of silence. People are not able to talk because they are afraid. And I am included. I stopped writing Pendulum on the back page of ThisDay because of President Tinubu. Every Saturday, any time I wrote, one elder statesman that I respect so much will call me and say, Dele leave Tinubu alone. And we all, one by one, we were silenced.
Your party, the ADC took part in the just-concluded FCT election, which you talked about as well as Rivers and Kano states by-elections. But many believe that ADC does not have a focal point for the upcoming 2027 elections. What do you have to say about this?
Let me start with FCT council elections. I just told you about what happened; where you had a minister who is so omnipresent, omnipotent, and was going from polling station to polling station. Would you call that an election and what is the percentage of the registered voters who voted in that election? They were disenfranchised, very clearly. People are disillusioned with voting in Nigeria. And the overmilitarization of elections actually scares people away from voting.
When you shut down a city for 24 hours because of a local government election, and people are not able to travel to wherever they registered, will you call that an election. They knew what they were doing. They knew that if the people come out, it would be overwhelming against the APC. I’m not talking about ADC. I was one of those who supported Muhammadu Buhari 2014-2015. There is no difference whatsoever.
This was how we started. In fact, the gathering that launched ADC at the Musa Yar’Adua Centre in Abuja would outstrip those who gathered to support Buhari. Look at most of the people who are with us today; you just mentioned Rotimi Amaechi, he came second to Tinubu in the APC presidential primary election. Now, he’s in ADC. Atiku Abubakar came second in the presidential election in 2023. He’s in ADC. Peter Obi came third in the last presidential election. He’s in ADC. Look, they will completely obliterate APC out of existence. ADC is very strong. Of course, we are not going to reveal our strategy; that would be unreasonable.
Your party has a noose around its neck and is fighting for its breath. The Federal High Court has fixed March 24, for ruling on the suit seeking deregistration of your party because you don’t have the required number of elected seats. Secondly, your members have to be digitally registered by April 2. Will you meet the regulatory requirements ahead of the elections?
You are the one who is panicking on our behalf. There is no panic. For us, APC takes politics and elections as matters of life and death. We are very cool, calm and calculated, so don’t let us cry louder than the bereaved. ADC is sending jitters to APC, and that is why all these are going on. We know the agents. We know everybody. There is nothing hidden. We know those who are behind all these court cases. They’ve done it to Labour Party. They’ve done it to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). There is staccato and sporadic movement to make sure that Tinubu is the only one on the ballot. It will not happen eventually.
They will try to maneuver, to meander, to navigate their ways, so that Tinubu will be a sole candidate like it happened during General Sani Abacha, when everybody said it must be Abacha, but I am telling you, Nigerians are wiser today. Like we say, the masquerade is not from heaven. It’s a human being who is behind the mask. So, we know the masquerades and we know the human beings behind the masks. So, don’t worry. I’m not one to panic.
Amaechi struck a very reflective tone, when he argued that opposition parties must also confront their own internal weaknesses.. Is that correct or not?
Of course, the insect that eats the vegetable is embedded within the vegetable. So, it’s nothing new that he has said. Of course, every party has its own internal problems and we can see that in what APC is already suffering in Delta State, where they took away our former vice presidential candidate, Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa and our governor.
They expected that all would be rosy but they forgot that those who are originally in the party will kick the same way some people are kicking in ADC. The only reason why that of ADC is amplified is because we are in opposition and the APC has enough goodies and lollipops to give to politicians to keep them quiet. Majority of my friends are in APC.
I speak to them almost on daily basis. I know how disgruntled they are. So, Amaechi has not said anything wrong. The truth is that every politician at this stage, I expect them to speak and say ‘I am the best. I am going to run. I will not agree to be number two.’ That’s what they will say but only one person can win the primary.
The chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has declared that technical glitches will not derail the polls in 2027. Does this give you confidence in the umpire’s capacity and ability to deliver credible elections?
It is difficult to trust any umpire in Nigeria based on experience. Experience is always the best teacher. I always had this tendency to believe and trust scholars but Nigeria has made nonsense of all our scholars, so it’s up to Prof. Joash Amupitan. Nobody is telling him to do 100 per cent.
If he can do 80 or 90 per cent, and people can see that they are factual, they are free, they are fair, they are reasonable, they are believable, we will all clap for him. But if he fails, he will fail spectacularly to the shame of himself and family. That’s the truth. You can have a trillion Naira budget and still fail in an election but that would be the height of irresponsibility.
The opposition have come together to cry out against the recently signed Electoral Act 2026. They are rejecting it and demanding its amendment. Tell us a bit what you really have against this law?
It is unfortunate that what is happening about the Electoral Act happened. I’ve never seen President Tinubu append his signature or anything at that speed of light. It was supersonic. They brought it, so that the agitators would not overwhelm them and he quickly signed. It’s all part of that charade. So, I’m not going to speak much on it. They know what they are trying to hide. The same people who are crying over digitalization of party membership.
They want to do things electronically to register those who will vote. But the machine they will use to vote cannot be done digitally. Simple logic, but anyway, that is their business and it will be the business of opposition to resist them when that time comes. I saw it in Ghana in 2024 during the election.
Ghanaians stood their ground. They refused to go away. They said, the soldiers, the police want to kill us. By 12 midnight, the result was known. Yes, Nigerians may be docile, Nigerians may be a bit laid back when it comes to elections, but I tell you what I see coming. This government will have to employ all the soldiers and all the police in the world to hold people in check.
It is one thing for you to criticize the present administration over its policies and its attendant effect on the populace, but the National Secretary of the APC, Senator Ajibola Bashiru said your party does not have boots on the ground and grassroots presence. What do you have to say about that?
Senator Bashiru, of course, has the right to defend his political party. I’m not here to be defensive. But when you look at the caliber of people in ADC today, you will see that apart from the few bullies, who are in APC, they have nothing to write home about. Everywhere they touch, they are scattered. Look at Kano. Today in Kano, you have two emirs. I’ve never seen anything like that. Today in Kano, you have a governor and his godfather.
Everywhere you go, we have that problem. Go to Zamfara, you don’t know what is happening. You don’t know if the governor has upper hand or it is the minister who have upper hand. Go to Rivers. In fact, that’s the most ridiculous. You have a governor who has been instructed by the President to respected his leader. The governor defected to APC and he automatically became number 001 in Rivers. But because of the fear, I don’t know what Nyesom Wike does other than to be an enforcer for Tinubu.
You are telling the governor that he must respect Wike and Wike is number one in APC, where he is not a member, he does not have even the confidence to join APC. Now, in the PDP, which he has already scuttled, you say he is also the leader and you the president you are not a member of that party. How do you choose a leader for the PDP? If this is the democracy we fought for, no problem. My own is to put words on marble, so that when tomorrow comes, they will know that at least some people screamed, shouted, cried, lamented like the biblical Jeremiah, but nobody listened to them.
