By Olu Onemola
The article titled “The ADC Bait: Blame Obi, Save Tinubu” is a desperate attempt to rewrite recent political history in order to excuse decisions that were clearly premeditated long before they became public.
It is both ironic and revealing that those who spent months negotiating within the ADC, demanding concessions, nominating party officials, and participating in coalition meetings now want Nigerians to believe that the very platform they worked so hard to influence suddenly became “unviable” only after they chose to leave.
Let us be clear: Peter Obi and Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso did not suddenly discover problems within the ADC. Their exits were long in motion.
Mr. Obi took an extraordinarily long time to formally join the coalition process, despite repeated engagements and concessions made in good faith by the party. Senator Kwankwaso, on the other hand, spent barely over forty days within the coalition before leaving. Yet today, some people want Nigerians to believe that the coalition collapsed because of events that happened after they had already made up their minds to exit.
That is simply not true.
The ADC remained committed to building a united opposition platform capable of rescuing Nigerians from economic hardship, insecurity, and deepening hopelessness. While others treated the coalition as a temporary special purpose vehicle for their personal ambitions, the ADC continued the difficult work of party building, institution building, and democratic negotiation.
It is also important to remind Nigerians that throughout this process, the ADC resisted enormous pressure, intimidation, and destabilisation attempts from government-sponsored forces that feared the emergence of a credible opposition. We stayed focused because we believe the Nigerian people deserve an alternative built on substance, not personality cults.
The real question Nigerians should ask is simple: if Obi and Kwankwaso already believed the ADC was “not viable,” why did they spend months negotiating positions, demanding concessions, nominating officials, and participating in coalition meetings?
The answer is obvious. This was never about ideology or principle. They simply decided that controlling the coalition was more important than building one.
The ADC will not be distracted by manufactured narratives designed to turn opposition parties against one another while Nigerians suffer under the weight of inflation, unemployment, insecurity, and a collapsing standard of living.
Our focus remains where it has always been: winning power in order to fix the country. Nigerians are not looking for perpetual candidates. They are looking for leadership that can end insecurity, reduce the cost of living, create jobs at scale, and restore hope in the future again.
Unfortunately, what Nigerians have witnessed from some political actors in recent months is a greater obsession with being candidates than with the difficult work of building a stable governing alternative. The ADC has chosen to focus on coalition-building over ego, institution-building over personality cults, and national interest over personal ambition.
Those who left are free to explain their decision to Nigerians. We, on our part, will continue the work of building a party and a movement capable not just of contesting elections, but of governing Nigeria responsibly and effectively.
We rest our case.
— Olu Onemola is a member of the African Democratic Congress. He writes from Abuja.
