ADC Leaders Accuse Atiku of Sidelining South-West Party Structure Ahead of 2027 Election

Several leaders of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) in the South-West have accused the party’s presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, of marginalising the party’s structures in the region ahead of the 2027 general election.

The aggrieved leaders, including state chairmen, governorship candidates and other party officials, alleged that Atiku had been conducting political activities in the region through his personal friends and allies, while excluding established party structures.

The development has reportedly generated discontent among party members and contributed to the slow pace of campaign preparations across the South-West.

The region, widely regarded as a political stronghold of President Bola Tinubu, remains an important area of political contestation ahead of the 2027 presidential election.

During the 2023 presidential election, Tinubu won Ogun, Oyo, Ekiti and Ondo states, while Atiku, who contested under the Peoples Democratic Party, won Osun. Labour Party candidate, Peter Obi, secured victory in Lagos State.

According to Sunday PUNCH, some ADC governorship candidates and party leaders met in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, on September 4, where they reportedly lodged complaints with the party’s National Secretary, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, over Atiku’s alleged failure to involve the party structure in his political activities.

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At the meeting, the leaders reportedly sought clarification on whether Atiku intended to work with the existing party structures or preferred to conduct his political engagements through personal associates.

A governorship candidate who attended the meeting said almost all the ADC leaders present expressed dissatisfaction with the situation.

The candidate, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the concerns raised at the meeting had yet to receive adequate attention.

He said, “The meeting was hot. We told the national secretariat, through Aregbesola, that Atiku must respect the party structure and channel his campaign through it.

“Many of us at the meeting complained about the sidelining of the party in the South-West by our presidential candidate. We rejected his practice of using his friends and loyalists to run political activities that the party should ordinarily have been engaged in.

“We insisted that the party structures that produced all the governorship, national and state assembly candidates for the 2027 elections are the genuine party structures with which Atiku must engage.”

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Another party leader who attended the meeting disclosed that Atiku subsequently held a virtual meeting with South-West ADC leaders on September 5, during which he reportedly reaffirmed his commitment to the party and promised to address their grievances.

According to the source, Atiku requested that each state submit five names of party members for appointment into his campaign committee.

“He promised that there would be a change and that the party would henceforth be carried along in his political activities. But little has really changed since then,” the source said.

Some ADC insiders also alleged that the former vice-president was unwilling to commit sufficient financial resources to political activities in the region.

One party official claimed that Atiku declined to provide transportation allowances for South-West state chairmen who travelled to Abuja for a meeting with him on September 17.

The official said, “You can imagine a situation where the party chairmen in the six South-West states went to Abuja to attend a meeting with him and our presidential candidate refused to give them transport fare. The chairmen are not happy with him for that. Maybe he is just targeting his 25 per cent in the region.”

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An ADC House of Assembly candidate in Ekiti State also blamed the lack of visibility of Atiku’s political activities in the region on the alleged exclusion of party members.

“You can see nothing is happening in the South-West ADC. Everywhere is dull, and that is because the party has not been engaged by our presidential candidate. Only his friends have been involved in his campaign activities,” he said.

Similarly, the Chairman of the ADC Local Government Chairmen in Lagos State, Adewole Ijaogbomo, called on Atiku to urgently address the complaints, alleging that a few individuals were dominating campaign activities in the state.

He accused some of those involved in the campaign of positioning themselves for personal benefits rather than working with established party leaders.

“Most of the people championing Atiku’s cause in the South-West, especially in Lagos State, are just positioning themselves to grab the campaign fund for their selfish interests. The main party leaders are not being carried along in all their activities.

“The real ADC leaders are being excluded from Atiku’s political activities. I see that Atiku doesn’t want to offend anybody, but he must address this matter urgently,” Ijaogbomo said.

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However, the South-West Chairman of the ADC, Akin Omole, dismissed suggestions that Atiku was deliberately sidelining party members, arguing that the former vice-president was entitled to maintain relationships with political associates outside the party.

Omole explained that the ADC was a coalition of politicians from different political backgrounds, making it necessary for Atiku to maintain existing alliances.

He said the involvement of the presidential candidate’s friends and associates should not be interpreted as an attempt to undermine the party structure.

“We cannot deny the fact that there have been some old alliances, people who have been together in some political parties before now.

“Every candidate must develop a relationship outside the party, and we must agree that it’s all these factors that contribute to the success of a candidate. So, we cannot push his friends away from him,” he said.

Omole confirmed that the Ibadan meeting took place, but maintained that its primary objective was to develop strategies for securing support for Atiku across the South-West.

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He also dismissed claims that party officials travelled to Abuja expecting the presidential candidate to finance their transportation.

“We went to Abuja not for him to provide us with transport. We are party officials. We have our source of funding within our states. So, it’s not a question of having any expectation of giving us money for transport,” he said.

The Lagos State ADC Chairman, George Ashiru, also rejected claims that party leaders were being marginalised, describing the concerns as premature.

According to him, Atiku had yet to formally inaugurate his campaign or appoint state campaign coordinators, adding that the constitution of campaign committees should not be confused with the party’s internal structure.

Ashiru said party executives would be involved in the process at the appropriate time.

He added that campaign committees were strategic organisations whose membership was not necessarily restricted to party executives.

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Meanwhile, the Osun State chapter of the ADC dismissed reports of a strained relationship between Atiku and Aregbesola.

Speculation about a possible disagreement between the two politicians intensified after the ADC Presidential Campaign Council was announced on September 25 without Aregbesola’s name.

However, the party’s Publicity Secretary in Osun State, Oluwaseun Abosede, insisted that there was no disagreement between the former vice-president and the party’s National Secretary.

“There is no rancour between Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola and Alhaji Atiku Abubakar. They are fine, and there is no leadership crisis within the ADC as some people may want the public to believe,” Abosede said.

He maintained that the party had developed a political roadmap for the South-West, involving consultations, mobilisation and efforts to strengthen its structures ahead of the election.

Abosede added that the absence of frequent public campaign activities did not mean the party was inactive.

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Reacting to the allegations, Atiku’s Director of Strategic Communication, Phrank Shaibu, dismissed claims that the presidential candidate had sidelined ADC executives in the South-West.

Shaibu argued that state campaign coordinators and their respective campaign councils had not been announced or inaugurated, making allegations of exclusion premature.

“The claim that state party executives in the South-West have been sidelined is untrue. The state coordinators and their respective campaign councils have neither been announced nor inaugurated at the state level. There is therefore no state campaign structure that has been constituted and then excluded,” he said.

He maintained that Atiku respected the party’s leadership and existing structures, describing claims that the former vice-president was bypassing party officials as opposition speculation.

“Atiku is a party man who respects the party’s structure, its members and its leaders. The suggestion that he has been running his political activities by bypassing them is opposition conjecture, not a genuine complaint from our members,” Shaibu added.

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