Former Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in South Africa, Mr Bola Babarinde, has described the African Democratic Congress (ADC) as a political home for “power-hungry veterans.”
Babarinde made the remark in a statement made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Sunday in Lagos.
NAN reports that the former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar-led National Coalition of Political Opposition Movement with some aggrieved APC leaders on Tuesday adopted the ADC as a platform to unseat President Bola Tinubu in 2027.
Since this announcement was made, a couple of opposition politicians especially from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Labour Party and others have declared support for ADC.
Babarinde said: “In any thriving democracy, political alignment is rooted in values, conviction, and consistency.
“Unfortunately, the Nigerian political space continues to drift dangerously away from these ideals.
“The recent regrouping of prominent political actors under the African Democratic Congress (ADC) is the latest evidence of a system in moral and ideological crisis.
“The ADC, once a fringe party with modest influence, has suddenly become the new political home for an unlikely coalition of power-hungry veterans, former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, former Governors Rotimi Amaechi, Nasir El-Rufai, Rauf Aregbesola, and former Labour Party Presidential Candidate, Peter Obi.
“All of them, having either wrecked their former parties or failed to achieve their personal ambitions within them, now find shelter in ADC, ironically branding it a “third force” for national salvation.”
According to him, this is not a coalition of ideologue but a gathering of political drifters.
He noted that the same people who had occupied the highest levels of power in PDP, APC, and LP had converged in ADC, “not because of shared vision, but because of individual calculations.”
Babarinde said: “What binds them is not policy or principle but ambition, specifically, the laughable idea that they all want to run for President, just for one term.”
“This charade exposes a political culture where ideology is expendable, and honour is negotiable.
“These politicians have, over the years, shown a disturbing pattern: When the platform no longer serves their ambition, they abandon it.
“When internal democracy threatens their dominance, they destroy it. When the people demand accountability, they switch parties and rebrand themselves as saviours.
“Their sudden love for ADC is not a fresh start; it’s a strategic detour. It’s less about rescuing Nigeria and more about rescuing their relevance.”
He said that each man involved in the coalition carried the baggage of past failures, unfulfilled promises, and public disillusionment, “yet, they present themselves again as if the Nigerian people suffer from collective amnesia.”
Babarinde, while contrasting this with the political trajectory of Tinubu, described the leaders of coalition as the band of opportunists seeking reinvention under new party labels.
He said that Tinubu had demonstrated remarkable political consistency.
“From Tinubu’s early days in the Alliance for Democracy (AD), he nurtured that platform into the Action Congress (AC), evolved it into the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), and later led its merger into the ruling APC,” Babarinde said. (NAN)
