Nigerians, not INEC, will determine ADC’s fate — Party’s founding chairman, Nwosu

Nigerians, not INEC, will determine ADC’s fate — Party’s founding chairman, Nwosu

A lot is going on with the African Democratic Congress, among which is litigation, factionalisation spearheaded by the likes of Nafiu Gombe and Dumebi Kachikwu, which gives us the genesis of the David Mark-led ADC coalition that is being disputed.

This coalition happened immediately after the court judgment on the last election. I was moving around seeking a coalition. I had meetings with former President Olusegun Obasanjo many times. He invited some leaders. I had a meeting with Rauf Aregbesola in his home in Lagos and Osun. After that, Emeka Nwajuiba approached me and said that he was talking for a larger group, that all the groups that had been wanting to get in, including the PDP group, the Congress for Progressive Change group, the All Progressives Congress group, and I said that it was good. So, I started working with that group. I insisted that we will form this coalition once all of the critical opposition figures have signed in. This is because ADC, working with one single party alone, cannot do it. After I had the first conversations, we set up a committee that included Dr Mani Ahmad from Niger State, Dr Bamidele Ajadi from Oyo State, and Godson Okoye from Anambra State. They were the ones that we put forward to handle the negotiations. When it becomes a bit difficult, I will get involved. Later, we added more people. We added Jumoke Olawoyin, Bala Nafiu, and a couple of others. We continued that conversation. This recent coalition started more than two years ago. And when we started to agree, there was a need for us to have a National Executive Council meeting so that all our members and leaders would be informed. Our NEC is all the state chairmen plus the Federal Capital Territory, that is 37 chairmen. Then it also includes all our zonal executives. Each zone has between nine and 13 members, multiplied by six, that is over 70 members. Then the National Working Committee had about 30 members. So, we have a total of over 130 members. We held our first NEC meeting at NICON Luxury. The committee reported to them that some people are approaching us to form a coalition, merger or alliance and asked all the NEC members if they approve for us to continue that journey. They all approved. It was 100 per cent approval. The records are there. The media was there. The Independent National Electoral Commission was there at our NEC. So, when we agreed that we are ready to work with other political parties, other individuals to form a mega coalition, we sent them our Constitution. They saw our constitution, and they saw some limitations, that is, things in our constitution that would limit them from fully participating. And they raised it. For instance, you have to be a member for two years before you can contest an election, or even want to be an executive of the party, unless you get a waiver. When they pointed that out to us, we met and told them that, under our Constitution, the NEC can do the work you can do during the convention. The NEC can act for the convention. Therefore, we need to call another NEC meeting and make the needed amendments to make the coalition work well and be constitutional. So, NEC was called. Over 130 people were there, and the documentation was done. INEC was also present. Members of these different groups will also send a few people as observers to make sure everything is going well. They all went well. There was one clause that, if the national chairman resigns or is voted out, the person to act should be the deputy national chairman in charge of politics and must come from the same zone as the national chairman. We had to make all these amendments to make it possible for anybody from anywhere to contest the election. We did it in the presence of INEC. INEC helped us. Prelude to all of this, we were having some issues before, caused by Dumebi Kachikwu.

Are you referring to the same Dumebi Kachikwu who was your presidential candidate?

Yes, the small party we were then, anybody can come and say they want to run for President. We were looking for people to come and run. A lot of people will go to the PDP and APC to run, and parties were struggling to get a candidate who could run. As a matter of fact, it was when Dumebi came to undermine and deal with our party that we put those clauses that nobody can come after two or three months, and we give the person the ticket to run because you don’t know their motives. So, when we redid our constitution, we included all that, because of the troublesomeness of Dumebi. Dumebi came to our party to cause problems.

If he was causing problems, what firm measures did you implement to deal with the situation?

During our convention, he was expelled. And our party was free to adopt the Labour Party presidential candidate during the election proper. He was expelled. Those who know Dumebi Kachikwu will know he is just looking to play a destructive game.

But he still claims to be a member…

Presently, he’s not our member. But, for some reason, the fact that he was a presidential candidate makes him feel that it doesn’t expire. You always see him on television claiming to be the presidential candidate of ADC. But you took our ticket and tried to damage the party. If you were a presidential candidate, it has expired now; you didn’t use it well. Now, the gains of ADC have created business for the people instead of thinking of nation-building. So, people like Kachikwu, and unfortunately, Bala Nafiu, have become victims. All that is happening is just the party in power and the media that is giving it this colouration.

Was Bala part of the various meetings you mentioned?

One hundred per cent, yes. There was no meeting he missed. The records are there. INEC records are there. When Bala went to court claiming something, one of the documents that was presented in the court was the one that INEC wrote. INEC presented a case against Bala that it was there and that Bala participated in everything. INEC had their record. But recently, we heard that INEC had gone back on what they presented when Bala started this troublesome thing.