Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi is the National Publicity Secretary of the African Democratic Congress (ADC). In this interview with Muideen Olaniyi, he speaks on the controversy trailing the amended 2026 Electoral Act, the party’s digitalised membership registration process, coalition building, among other national issues.
What are the specific provisions of the Electoral Act that your party finds problematic, and how do you plan to address these issues?
We have made our grievances very clear regarding the Electoral Act. We made it clear during the process of lawmaking at the National Assembly, through our members in the National Assembly and with protests in front of the National Assembly by our members and Nigerians across the country. But the ruling party went ahead and they did what they had to do. But from what we see in the Electoral Act, we are of the opinion that the amendment of the law of the Electoral Act 2022 that produced the Electoral Act 2026 as amended, is actually part of a choreographed plan to disadvantage the opposition and clear the field for the ruling party ahead of the 2027 elections. How do we mean it? Apart from the issue of Section 60(3) on the transmission of election results, which everybody appeared to be focused on, we found that there are more insidious and dangerous provisions of the Electoral Act that will definitely make participation in the 2027 election difficult for the opposition.
Can we have those insidious and dangerous provisions you have identified?
One of them is a provision that limits the process of candidate selection to just direct primaries and consensus. We believe this is extra-constitutional. We believe that the Constitution allows a political party to decide which process or method to use in selecting its own candidate. By limiting us to direct primaries, what the ruling party is hoping for is to create a position of chaos and anarchy, because direct primaries means that you conduct a nationwide election of your members across the 36 states of the Federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) between now and July. That’s almost impossible. Now, the only alternative open to you is what is called consensus. We know that in the absence of an objective parameter for selecting candidates, it is usually very difficult to arrive at a consensus at this level. So, we believe that all these things were deliberately implanted to disadvantage the opposition political parties, given that the APC does not have that encumbrance. They have already decided on who their candidate will be. That is number one. The second one is the issue of submission of digitalised membership register. We, as an opposition party, have commenced the process of registering our members since late last year. But the new law requires some details to be collected from members that were never demanded for the purpose of registering a political party. One of them is the National Identification Number. By introducing that, what the ruling party has done is to throw us a cork ball. And now we have to go back to the drawing table. And within the next 20-something days, we must produce a fully digitalised membership register. This is almost impossible. And that’s why we say we are challenging it. We will challenge it in court because it is against the constitution, especially when the law stipulates that failure to submit this digitalised membership register, the party will not be able to field a candidate. And that anybody that is not registered in this political party register will not be able to vote or be voted for. This is not what the Constitution requires. The constitution is very clear on the qualifications for voting and being voted for and for participating in elections. So, we believe this is ultra vires and we are going to challenge it to the extent of its inconsistency with the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Now, without prejudice to all that, you saw what happened the moment we opened our portal, all kinds of spam registrations invaded the ADC registration portal. They started putting all kinds of photos, all kinds of characters, including monkeys, including world leaders, and all kinds of things to jam the process.
Are you suspecting anyone for being responsible for that?
Of course, it’s the APC. Let us take note of that. They started this process of digitalised party membership registration since February last year. When you say they started in February last year, to the unwary, it will appear that they have foresight. No. What they had was insider information. They knew exactly what was going to happen. And that’s why they started from last year. So, it has taken them one year. And despite that they have one year, we still found that Adolf Hitler has registered in their party. Bello Turji, the renowned bandit, has registered for their party. But more importantly is what I am about to tell you. We now have to go back and recalibrate and introduce compulsory NIN in our registration process. Now, government is in custody of all the data of every Nigerian that has an NIN. They have their phone numbers. They know where they live. Now, they have photos to put NIN. It means that they can target every single voter in Nigeria. It means that they can block membership, actually know who is in what polling unit, and direct their message to the individuals. It is all part of an elaborate scheme to rig the election.
With these instances, do you think it is possible for ADC to conclude the case in court before the INEC timetable lapses?
We are talking now, registering our objection. We will go to court, challenging the legality of what they have done. And we will consider options available to us.
Have you commenced the process?
The process will commence. ADC will not allow itself to be used to legitimise the fraud that they are planning for 2027. And what we are saying is that INEC has to sit up to its responsibility and live up to its name as an independent electoral commission. It is either they are able to do that or they are not. If they are not able to do that, then let us know that INEC is only another arm of the federal government. And instead of wasting money, wasting billions of hard-earned Nigeria’s money to organise this charade, they should just go ahead and buy a crown and put it on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s head so that we know what we have is a coronation rather than an election.
What are the ADC’s key campaign promises and how do you plan to differentiate yourself from other opposition parties towards 2027?
As you are aware, about three weeks ago, we inaugurated our policy and manifesto committee. And they have 12 weeks to submit their report. They are working day and night to develop the policy and manifesto of the ADC. But from where I stand, the kind of party we want to build is a party that puts the interests of Nigeria and Nigerians first. We are mindful of the suffering and hardship that Nigerians have undergone in the last three years going to four under this APC administration. So, when we say we want to rescue Nigeria, we want to rescue Nigerians from this hardship. The kind of policy you see from us is not going to be market-oriented. It is not going to be neoliberal. It is going to be policies that will support the livelihood and welfare of the people. But we are shying away from putting a tag on ourselves by saying that we are a social welfare party or we are a welfarist party or we are this or we are that. We believe that all those tags at the end of the day are meaningless. If you look at this APC, they claim to be a progressive social welfare party, but no other political party in Nigerian history has been more neoliberal in its policies like this APC government. So, we are saying that we want to be judged by what we do rather than the label that we give to our manifesto.
What is the ADC’s idea of electoral reform and how you envision the electoral process improving?
One thing ADC can guarantee is that when we come to power, we will ensure real-time electronic transmission of results. We are not going to rig elections. And I can tell you without going into specifics that ADC will do whatever to institute election processes that every Nigerian in any part of the world would be proud of, that the winner will agree that this election has been free, fair and transparent. That Nigerians will believe once again that their votes will count. The reason Nigerians are no longer coming out to vote is because they know that their votes will be stolen. That whatever they do, it will not matter in the end, that the results will be written. ADC will commit to ensuring that every single vote counts.
The ADC has already criticised the current government’s handling of the economy and security, what alternative policies and leadership style will the party offer?
It is the same thing that I have been emphasising, that by the time our manifesto comes out, you will see clearly what we plan to do differently on economy, on infrastructure, on human capital development, on social welfare. What this government did, when they removed subsidies, they did not think, okay, we have removed subsidies, then what happens to the people? So, ADC will run a government that is sensitive, that is empathetic, that puts the people at the center of everything we do. That raises the question, how does this affect the people? How does this improve the lives of the people? How is it likely to make life difficult for the people? And that will fundamentally determine what we will do.
With efforts being made and the structure being put on ground, are you confident that the ADC will dislodge the APC in 2027?
We are confident that we are going to win the election. We are confident today that in any free and fair election, ADC will win. What is clear is that Nigerians have had enough of this APC government. The only thing is for us to prove to them that we represent that credible alternative. And which is what we are working on every single day to prove to Nigerians that we are that alternative. We are glad that Nigerians are beginning to see it. The kind of enthusiasm that follows our membership registration is incredible. We have cleaned up all those spam registrations. Yet, the number is enormous. So, it shows that Nigerians really want change. We are convinced that in any free and fair election, we are ready.
