INEC’s Rejection of Turaki-Led PDP NWC a Warning to ADC — Okechukwu

A foundation member of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Osita Okechukwu, has said that the decision of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to reject the Tanimu Turaki-led National Working Committee, NWC, of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, serves as a warning to the African Democratic Congress, ADC.

Okechukwu described INEC’s refusal to recognise Turaki’s faction of the PDP as “karma finally taken home.”

Speaking to journalists in Abuja, the former Director-General of the Voice of Nigeria, VON, cautioned the ADC, which he accused of playing a role in the PDP’s political crisis, to beware of a similar fate ahead of the 2027 general elections.

He warned that the ADC could face serious consequences if it violates the zoning and rotation convention by not allowing the South to complete what he described as the traditional eight years in Aso Rock.

“I hope that when ADC in 2027 plunges into the power-gluttony temptation of breaching the rotation convention of not allowing the South to complete the traditional eight years in Aso Villa, they will neither blame President Bola Tinubu nor the APC for imposing a one-party system in Nigeria. It will amount to boarding a vehicle tagged ‘No Refund after Payment,’” he said.

Okechukwu recalled that he had consistently warned the Igbo political class against putting all their political hopes in one party, the PDP, dating back to the 1999 presidential election, when the party denied its founder and former Vice President, Dr Alex Ekwueme, the presidential ticket.

He also referenced subsequent presidential elections in 2003, 2007, 2011 and 2019, noting that prominent Igbo politicians were fielded without success.

According to him, the ADC is on the same path as the PDP and risks suffering a similar collapse if it breaches the rotation convention based on what he called a false assumption that the northern electorate can be mobilised en masse behind a single candidate.

“It is my candid view that ADC will suffer the same fate as the PDP, especially when it is on the same trajectory of breaching the rotation convention based on the false assumption that the northern electorate are in a dormitory to be hauled to the polling booth to vote for Atiku Abubakar,” he added.

Okechukwu maintained that neither President Bola Tinubu nor the Wike-led G-5 governors should be blamed for the crisis in the PDP, insisting that the party’s leadership must accept responsibility for its internal implosion.

He stressed that Nigeria’s Fourth Republic is anchored on the zoning and rotation convention, which he described as a key mechanism for inclusion, equity and national unity in a fragile and polarised polity.

According to him, any attempt to violently breach this convention would inevitably lead to internal crisis, warning that the ADC risks implosion if it follows the same path as the PDP.