The African Democratic Congress has said it resorted to conducting direct primaries across the country after the Independent National Electoral Commission ruled out other methods for choosing candidates ahead of the 2027 general elections.
Speaking on challenges encountered during the exercise in an interview on ARISE News, the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Bolaji Abdulahi, said the ADC was forced to adapt quickly to the demands of organising a nationwide primary despite lacking full preparation for an operation of that scale.
“We always knew it was going to be a challenge because it requires an INEC-level logistics to be able to do a nationwide election,” he said.
He explained that the party had initially considered adopting a consensus arrangement, but legal disputes and pending court matters prevented the convention required to formalise such agreements from taking place.
“But when the INEC imposed it on us as the only option aside from the consensus, then we had no choice but to brace up for it,” he added.
The spokesman also dismissed reports suggesting that the party’s consensus arrangement had broken down, maintaining that consultations among aspirants remained peaceful and in line with the party’s democratic values.
According to him, the ADC promotes dialogue, negotiations, and healthy competition among members instead of imposing candidates on the party structure.
“The ADC is a party that prides itself in contestation, internal contestation of ideas, of positions. We don’t impose,” he stated.
The party further downplayed fears that the primaries could lead to internal crisis, noting that all aspirants involved had agreed to respect the final outcome of the process.
The spokesman added that the ADC had so far not received any significant complaints concerning the conduct of the primaries nationwide.
He also rejected claims of an existing faction within the party, arguing that those behind such assertions failed to satisfy constitutional conditions required for recognition as a legitimate faction.
The ADC spokesman assured Nigerians that the party’s ideology would place citizens’ welfare at the centre of governance, stressing that policies under an ADC administration would focus on improving living conditions and safeguarding the interests of ordinary people.
