2019: Obasanjo’s Group Split

The Chief Olusegun Obasanjo-backed African Democratic Congress, ADC, has split barely three months after its fusion with the Coalition of Nigerian Movement (CNM).

The ADC was formed in January 2018 after a publication by former President Obasanjo.

But on Tuesday, a faction pulled out announcing itself as New African Democratic Congress (N-ADC).

Protem national chairman of the group, Precious Elekima, in an announcement at a news conference in Abuja, said the group withdrew from ADC because it did not want to be a party in Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP), explaining that ADC leadership joined the alliance without consulting stakeholders.

Elekima said the formation of the group was to keep alive the mission of ADC to free Nigeria from backwardness, which the party (ADC) wanted to truncate by joining the coalition.

He said, “On May 10, without any form of consultation with the components of the federation, that is the states, the teeming members of CNM fused into ADC as the third-force with the mandate to salvage Nigerians from oppressive leadership.

“These teeming Nigerians believed in the good intentions as set out in the clarion call so meekly embraced by the ADC.

“They gave flesh and blood to the ADC, reinvigorated and rebranded it to aspire as the third-force in the political landscape of the country.

“This again, they did without any sponsorship from the former president or his associates. They invested their time and resources to building the ADC whose star was on the rise.

“Suddenly, without any consultation with the party chairmen and stakeholders in the 36 states and Abuja, the ADC was taken into a place for unholy intimacy with the PDP.

“As if that was a small matter, defectors from the APC were also called in to take part in this unholy political orgy clothed as memorandum of understanding for the CUPP on July 16.

“Since majority of the members in the ADC never set out to deceive Nigerians, it has become necessary for the sake of these innocent members and the hope held for Nigerians that we step out of the ADC,” he said.

“It has become necessary to step out with the mission and mandate of the clarion call and leave behind those leaders who for reasons best known to them have become like those in APC and PDP.

“We are, therefore, happy and proud to announce that these gallant Nigerians who believe in the Third-Force for Nigerians have now constituted themselves out from the former ADC as the New–ADC.

“We call on members of ADC nationwide, the CNM and all progressives to rally round the N-ADC as we set out on a mission to free Nigerians from their slave masters.”