Democracy thrives on competition, on a range of choices, or at the very least a viable alternative (as happens in settled 2 Party democracies like the USA). This is the compelling reason why in emerging democracies, a single party dominance is antithesis to the essence of democracy.
Since the birth of the 4th Republic, 2 parties have been dominant – the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Parties Congress (APC), forming government are the Federal level, the former giving us 3 presidents, the latter, 2. So, there appeared to be a settled competitive duo, until the aftermath of the 2023 internal crises in the PDP. This piece is not to rehash the PDP morass, suffice to say that the former political power house is now comatose.
Hence the need for a viable alternative to present Nigeria with a viable alternative to the ruling party per time. This is only how the party ruling per time will not take Nigerians for granted.
Enters the African Democratic Congress (ADC), said to be the coalition of “opposition forces”, attracting political personalities from the PDP, APC, Labour Party (LP) and other sundry smaller parties. So, in the permutations for the 2027 general elections, the ADC ought to be a viable option for Nigerians dissatisfied with the current APC government. But it’s morning has does not portend well …
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For the simple reason, in my humble view, that the ADC is copying, hook, line and sinker, the template that saw to the birth and success of the APC (a) successfully coalesce sundry parties blocs into one big tent and (b) harp on the ills of the governing party’s economic policies. Then, boom! Nigerians will embrace the alternative to el dorado. Good template on paper.
But something is missing in this operational tactics of the ADC. And that is sacrificial giving. I will explain.
To position the APC for a good shot at defeating a sitting president and his party in 2013/14, various tendencies that formed the APC realized early on that two men had the settled votes, the aggregate of which should win the party the presidency and national spread; and both men were smart enough to SACRIFICIALLY defer to the other. One man temporarily subjugated his ambition to allow the stronger lead; and the stronger never overreached that sacrificial partner! Forget all revisionist views ten years after the fact, this was APC’s winning template.
This, my dear readers is absent in the nascent ADC; and it is for this reason that if the elections were to hold in February 2026 (actually the general elections will be in February 2027), the ADC is grossly unprepared. The prognosis is not that it would be, even two years out!
For it is now clear that the two power houses in the ADC want to be president in 2027. Supporters of one vowing not to support the other if their preferred person does not get the ticket and vice versa.
This is the reason why ADC may not fulfill potential. Unless the main protagonists “borrow sense”, using the Naija parlance.
