2027: ADC Will Ensure INEC Is Free From Executive Control, Says Party Chieftain 

Chuks Okocha in Abuja 

One of the arrow heads of the coalition in the African Democratic Congress (ADC) and former Director General of the Progressive Governors Forum (PGF), Mallam Salihu Lukman, has revealed 12 policy principles and manifestoes of the party, saying ADC will ensure “a zero-impunity state, independent electoral management free from executive control” among others. 

The policy principles and manifestos, which have been adopted at the last National Convention of April 14, 2026, also commits to performance audits and value-for-money governance, subsidiarity and fiscal responsibility, living wage, tripartite labour governance and productivity alignment. 

In a detailed article Lukman released yesterday in Abuja, titled ‘ADC and New Framework of Electoral Campaign’, said the thrusts of both the ADC Manifesto and Policy Principles were founded on three pillars – First, ‘that every policy, from economic reform to security to social protection, must be measured by its impact on citizens.’ Second, ‘that Nigeria’s challenges are structural and require coordinated, institutional solutions, not ad hoc interventions.’ And third, ‘that reform is necessary, but it must be sequenced, supported, and humane, ensuring that Nigerians are not pushed further into hardship in the process.’

Lukman, who is a prominent member of the Chief John Odigie-Oyegun and Prof. Pat Utomi as Chairman and Deputy Chairman, respectively, that produced the policy thrust, said the party has solutions to issues of subsidy removal, exchange rate management, rising unemployment, inflationary pressure, among other challenges facing Nigerians. 

According to him, the 12 sections are agriculture; economy; energy; environment; mineral resources; foreign policy; governance and rule of law; health; human capital and social protection; productivity and industrialisation; infrastructure and transport; and security.

“For instance, a major diagnostic of the agricultural sector is that the sector is ‘operating under severe structural stress: rising production costs, falling farm-gate prices, insecurity in food producing areas, weak technology adoption, and climate pressure. A key consequence is growing reliance on imports to fill domestic gaps.’ To address the challenges identified, the Manifesto commits ADC to ‘make food security a national security priority’ based on which the Policy Principles outlined thirty-four recommendations covering smallholder-centred food security and price stability, all-season agriculture through irrigation and water asset optimisation, agricultural mechanisation and productivity benchmarking, zero-based and performance based budgeting, agricultural transformation for food security and growth, etc.

“On governance, the Manifesto commits ADC to ‘put citizens at the centre of governance’ based on which the policy principles outlined twenty-eight recommendations to address challenges covering rule of law and a zero-impunity state, independent electoral management free from executive control, performance audits and value-for-money governance, subsidiarity and fiscal responsibility, living wage, tripartite labour governance and productivity alignment, etc.

“In the area of education, the Manifesto commits ADC to ‘declare state of emergency on education’, based on which the Policy Principles outlined sixteen recommendations to address challenges covering people-centred development, universal access to quality education, system-wide education reform, national workforce development strategy, a right based social protection, disability inclusion, integrated poverty reduction strategy, decentralised social protection delivery, etc.

“Similarly, the Manifesto commits the ADC to ‘prioritise preventive healthcare’ based on which the policy principles outlined twenty-one recommendations to address challenges covering health as national productivity and security policy, primary healthcare centre (PHC) as the foundation of universal health coverage, universal coverage through insurance expansion and risk pooling, PHC under one roof with clear accountability, workforce retention as a national emergency priority, national disease surveillance and emergency response readiness, health equity for vulnerable population, etc.

“To address the security challenges facing the country, the Manifesto commits ADC to ‘operate a security framework across four coordinated levels’ – local-level intelligence, state-level prevention and deterrence, national-level coordination and enforcement, and regional-level collaboration. To achieve that the Policy Principles outline nine recommendations covering statutory intelligence coordination as backbone of national security, federal subsidiary and decentralised policing under national standards, police professionalisation, demilitarisation, and rights-based enforcement, independent oversight and internal accountability across security agencies, adequate manpower, modern training, and professional renewal, technology-enabled border governance and territorial control, etc.

“On the economy, the policy thrust is ‘to achieve sustained economic growth with high job creation, moving Nigeria away from an economic model dominated by consumption fuelled by rent extraction from a challenged oil-dependent structure, towards a production-driven economy built on the factor endowments of the country’s geopolitical zones.’ With a focus on ‘unlocking regional productive capacity through structured value chains linked to each zone’s comparative advantages’ the commitment of the ADC is to ‘prioritise development of regional value chains that integrate agriculture, manufacturing, logistics, technology, and services, ensuring that raw materials produced in each region are processed and transformed domestically before export.”

While calling on the party leadership to organise induction or orientation programmes for candidates of the party to ensure that they are committed to implement promises being made based on outlined recommendations, Lukman said: “The ADC manifesto commits its elected representatives to ensure that ‘economic stabilisation must protect purchasing power, support job creation, reduce hardship and expand opportunity.’ In clear terms, ADC ‘reject shock-therapy reform with commitment to implement economic reforms ‘gradually, with clear sequencing, social impact assessment, and robust protection for vulnerable populations.”

The ADC chieftain said notwithstanding all the legal and political distractions, the party leadership is committed to introducing a new framework of political campaigns for 2027.