PREVIEW
The opposition African Democratic Congress blames ruling-party sabotage after a court invalidates its presidential nomination
The ruling All People’s Congress may have secured its biggest lawfare win after the federal high court in Abuja on 5 November nullified the leadership of the opposition African Democratic Congress and voided the nomination of Atiku Abubakar as the ADC’s presidential candidate in January (AC Vol 67 No 8, Atiku wants election help from Washington).
The court struck down David Mark’s leadership of the ADC. A former Senate President for the People’s Democratic Party who joined the ADC in 2025, Mark has been in a legal dispute with Nafiu Bala Gombe over who heads the party.
The ADC says that the ruling is the result of lawfare by the APC led by Nyesom Wike, a former PDP governor who has been minister of the Federal Capital Territory under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s government (AC Vol 67 No 22, Nyesom Wike – Nigeria’s political chameleon).
‘The timing of this judgment is no coincidence,’ said Atiku in a statement. He had launched his campaign with a rally in Sokoto state the previous day. The court decision on 5 November is ‘another desperate attempt to cripple the opposition and deny Nigerians the right to choose their leaders in the forthcoming general elections’, ADC spokesman Bolaji Abdullahi said after the ruling.
Just two months before the election, the ruling leaves Atiku facing a race against time to reverse it on appeal.
If Atiku cannot run, it would leave Tinubu as an even heavier favourite for re-election, with Peter Obi, the Labour party’s presidential candidate in 2023, as his main challenger, this time representing the Nigeria Democratic Congress. It would also leave the election without any major candidate from the north, making regional representation an even more election issue.
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