Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar registered as a member of the African Democratic Congress in Jada 1 Ward, Adamawa State, on Monday. He picked up his membership card after quitting the Peoples Democratic Party in July over deep rifts. The step signals his push into a new opposition alliance eyeing the 2027 elections against the ruling All Progressives Congress.
Atiku hailed the moment as the dawn of true resistance. “Now I have picked my membership card of the ADC. Now, the real opposition has begun. We will chase the All Progressives Congress out of government,” he told reporters amid cheering crowds. Senator Sadiq Yar’Adua, national secretary of the ADC registration committee, and state chairman Shehu Yohanna oversaw the event.
Prominent allies joined the celebration, boosting the coalition’s momentum.
– Former Adamawa Governor Bindow Jibrilla
– Senator Aishatu Binani
– Senator Abdulaziz Nyako
– Senator Ishaku Abbo
The alliance draws in heavyweights like Labour Party’s Peter Obi, ex-Minister Rotimi Amaechi, former Kaduna Governor Nasir el-Rufai, and ex-Secretary to the Government Babachir Lawal. They eye the ADC as a united front to unseat the APC. Yet Babachir Lawal skipped the ceremony, blaming Atiku’s last-minute shift from Sunday to Monday. “Poor planning by the former vice president is responsible for me not attending,” Lawal said from Abuja.
Critics pounced swiftly, painting Atiku as a perennial drifter. Ex-Edo Governor Adams Oshiomhole mocked his track record on Channels Television’s Politics Today. “He was a founding member of the PDP, and according to him, what he predicted would happen to the PDP has come to pass. This was a man who, as vice-president… decamped from the party rather than reform it,” Oshiomhole said.
Oshiomhole slammed Atiku’s habit of jumping ships after defeats. He noted Atiku’s stints as PDP founder, APC pioneer—only to lose primaries to Buhari—and back to PDP for failed runs. “If you couldn’t fix your party, how can you lead the way to fix Nigeria?” Oshiomhole asked. “He is so much in love with the PDP… for the purpose of contesting elections. Yet, he could not build the PDP.”
APC’s deputy national organising secretary, Nze Duru, shrugged off the drama in a PUNCH interview. “If the opposition has just begun a few weeks or months to the 2027 election… we may not know the true position of the political parties in Nigeria,” Duru remarked. He listed PDP, Labour Party, and the ADC coalition as rivals but vowed the APC would face them head-on. “We are not in any case underwriting or underrating any person,” he added.
Chaos erupted within the ADC itself. A rival faction under Nafiu Bala rejected Atiku’s entry as fake. Director of media Christopher Okechukwu called it “illegitimate,” blaming unauthorised handlers amid a leadership feud. A Federal High Court case challenges the party’s national chair, David Mark, stalling full mergers. “This registration was conducted through individuals who are not recognised… and therefore lack the authority,” Okechukwu stated. He urged Atiku to follow rules for proper welcome into a “movement committed to democratic renewal.”
Atiku’s zigzag path—from PDP co-founder and Obasanjo’s deputy to APC hopeful, then back—fuels the backlash. He won only under Obasanjo, then clashed and bolted. The ADC turmoil adds fresh doubt to dreams of a grand opposition revival.
This scramble stirs raw nerves in a nation weary of political musical chairs. Voters ache for steady hands, not endless defections that mock their trust. As 2027 looms, the real storm may yet drown fragile hopes in waves of betrayal.
