Can ADC Navigate the Storm?

Having dared the Independent National Electoral Commission and the courts, and conducted its national convention, will the David Mark-led African Democratic Congress survive the political turbulence or suffer the fate of the Tanimu Turaki-led Peoples Democratic Party? Ejiofor Alike asks

In a clear demonstration of the dwindling confidence of the opposition political parties in the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the judiciary, the Senator David Mark-led African Democratic Congress (ADC) last Tuesday defied the commission and organised its national convention.

The INEC, largely populated by former political office holders and allies of prominent politicians, is perceived to be increasingly exhibiting biases against the opposition parties instead of acting as a neutral arbiter in the management of Nigeria’s electoral system.

Many opposition political figures and civil society organisations (CSOs) have accused the commission of allowing itself to be used by the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to destabilise the opposition parties ahead of the 2027 general election.

The judiciary has not fared better as controversial court judgments fuelled by the unholy alliance between some judges and some prominent politicians have eroded the citizens’ confidence in the judiciary.

Many analysts believe that some agents of the ruling party can never lose political cases in courts because of the huge patronage they dole out to judges and judicial officers, using their influential positions in government.

These government agents, with close allies in the judiciary and INEC, are also believed to have used corrupt judges and unscrupulous officials of the commission to destabilise and weaken the major opposition parties.    

It was not surprising that the ADC ignored INEC and organised its national convention without the commission monitoring the exercise.

The Chairman of INEC, Joash Amupitan, had warned the party against holding its congresses and national convention without the commission’s oversight.

Amupitan had issued the warning during an interview on ARISE NEWS Channel after the party indicated it would proceed with its convention despite INEC’s derecognition of the leadership of Senator Mark and former Osun State Governor, Rauf Aregbesola. 

The INEC boss said holding the convention could attract grave legal consequences.

He noted that the commission’s decision to derecognise Mark-led leadership was anchored on a subsisting court order, not arbitrary discretion.

“So, if they are going ahead with their congress, with their convention, it’s left for them to look at it, whether it is in contravention of the court. INEC didn’t just take a decision. We didn’t just wake up one day and took this decision. There was something that led to it. There was an order of court,” he said.

The INEC chairman said the appellate court had specifically directed parties to refrain from any action capable of undermining pending proceedings.

“Don’t do anything. Don’t take any step that will render any proceeding before the court nugatory,” Amupitan stated.

For INEC, the ADC has no leadership and is not in a position to organise congresses and national convention until the court recognises either Senator Mark or Hon. Nafiu Bala Gombe-led leadership.

ADC, like other opposition parties, has been enmeshed in a leadership dispute as factions loyal to Mark and Gombe continue to fight for the control of the soul of the party. 

Before Amupitan’s warning, the commission had earlier announced the delisting of the Mark-led National Working Committee (NWC) of the party from its official portal, citing a directive of the Court of Appeal.

But the Mark-led leadership countered the commission, insisting that the Court of Appeal’s ruling for the parties to maintain status quo did not imply derecognition of its NWC.

However, despite the opposition by the commission, ADC went ahead with its national convention.

Speaking at the party’s convention, which took place at Rainbow Event Marquee in Abuja, Mark said the exercise was the beginning of the process to change Nigeria.

According to him, ‘’forces that feared what a united ADC represents came for us through the courts, through institutions, through bureaucratic obstruction. They sought to stop this convention from happening. They removed our names from official portals.”

Mark vowed that “in an ever-shrinking democratic space that is orchestrated by those in the ruling party, the ADC will not bow, we will not cower, and we will not retreat.”

In a similar combative tone, the party also declared itself an unstoppable political force, while attacking the ruling APC and the INEC for making themselves a growing threat to Nigeria’s democracy.

In its secretariat report presented at the convention by the national secretary, Aregbesola, ADC said no individual, group, or institution could determine its existence. The party insisted that its legitimacy stemmed from the will of Nigerians.

ADC accused INEC of failing in its statutory duty by refusing to monitor its convention, describing the move as “dereliction of duty” and evidence of partisanship.

It warned that any attempt to delegitimise its activities would undermine democratic norms and called on the international community to closely monitor developments in Nigeria’s political space.

Many political analysts had thought that the recent nullification of the national convention organised in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital on November 15 and 16, 2025, by the Kabiru Tanimu Turaki-led faction of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) by the Court of Appeal would scare the ADC from holding the national convention.

The PDP held the convention against the orders of two Federal High Courts and without INEC monitoring it.

With the commission insisting that the ADC’s convention would contravene Appeal Court’s decision, which ordered the parties to maintain status quo, many had suggested that the Mark-led leadership should have gone back to court to seek the interpretation of the Appeal Court’s decision.

But the ADC believes that INEC’s agenda was to frustrate its preparation for the 2027 general election and facilitate the victory of the APC.

Unlike in the case of the PDP where courts gave express orders stopping the holding of the Ibadan convention, there was no evidence that the ADC received any court order stopping its convention before the exercise took place.

In the PDP’s case, two judges of the Federal High Court – James Omotosho and Peter Lifu, in their separate decisions, handed down rulings stopping the convention.

Though many political analysts had expected the PDP to suspend the Ibadan convention and seek the vacation of the restraining order, the party went ahead with the convention, which was eventually nullified by the Court of Appeal.

However, the Appeal Court didn’t give express order stopping the ADC convention except the order for the parties to maintain status quo, which was given different interpretations by both parties in the dispute.

A court order that reportedly sought to stop ADC’s convention was reported by the media after the convention had taken place.

Will the ADC’s convention, which was also not monitored by INEC survive legal scrutiny?

The outcomes of the different court cases involving the party’s leadership dispute will provide the answer to this question in the coming weeks.