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By Myke Agunwa,
Ahead of 2027 general election, The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has announced that it is mobilizing 35 million votes to unseat President Bola Tinubu at the next general election.
The party pledged to take its handshakes campaign across the country so that many Nigeria will key into its programmed and vote massively for the party at all levels.
National Chairman of the party, Chief Ralph Nwosu made the declaration on Wednesday in Abuja during a global summit organized by the party with the theme, “Repositioning Nigeria: How Collective Responsibility and Participation Can Drive Nigeria’s Turnaround”.
Explaining how the party is going to get into the presidential villa in 2027 Nwosu said, “For the first time, we will deliver a president with 30-something million votes. Our national youth team have assured me that they are going to bring out a minimum of 30 million votes and I am sure they are going to do that”.
He explained that there 99 million voters before the 2023 general election. He said that people are tired of voting but ADC is mobilizing people that just turned 18 and those disenchanted with the system.
“We are mobilizing people that just turned 18. We are mobilizing people that have refused to vote. And we have people who have the capacity to do the mobilization. A new beginning has come.
“The civil societies are already organizing. They just joined us not more than six months ago but by now, their membership is over 5 million. They are going to pull out 20 million.
The 35 million benchmark, I guess, is just an understatement because of some of the challenges we have in this country. For the first time, the next president of Nigeria will win clearly” he boasted.
When reminded that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has always been the weak link in the delivery of credible electoral system, he expressed confidence that INEC had delivered in the past and that if all stakeholders give them the needed support, they will have the courage to declare ADC winner of the next election.
“INEC under the present leadership have shown strength, wanting to do something, but they need the support of politicians.
“If the politicians, if the entire ecosystem of democracy, the judiciary, the police, the other persons, other institutions within the ecosystem, if they don’t cooperate, there is nothing one INEC chairman or INEC commissioners would do” he said.
The ADC boss also dismissed the rumour of collapsing the structure of the party into the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
“Nigeria is completely out. APC has buried Nigeria. So for us, we are bringing light, we are bringing diversity, inclusion and equity. We are bringing handshake and you say we deal with people who caused Nigerians the greatest embarrassment? No. No way” he said.
Nwosu agreed that there was a need to enter into a coalition to be able to wrestle power from the APC but quickly added that the coalition is going to be formed by the people and not the politicians.
“We are bringing many political parties together and I can assure you without missing a word, you’re going to see the biggest coalition of patriots, People driven coalition.
“I’ve been dealing with political party leaders for more than eight years and calling on them that we have to come together. But now we want Nigerians to drive it. They will all come. The citizens of Nigeria are going to shame them”.
Adding her voice is Hon. Irene Awunah-Ikeyegh, a guest speaker at the event, expressed disappointment with the members of the House of Representatives that voted against the bill that recommended the rotation of the Presidency among the six geopolitical zones. She said that the bill was a vehicle tha could reduce tension among politicians as they scramble for leadership position.
The summit was attended by members of the National Working Committee, State Working Committee and other stakeholders.
The party also is also holding a National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting on Thursday where serious decisions will be made about the strategy to be adopted to mobilize the 35million voters ahead of the 2027 general election.