Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser on Information and Strategy to President Bola Tinubu, has strongly criticized the newly formed opposition coalition that adopted the African Democratic Congress (ADC) as its platform for the 2027 elections, describing it as a hasty and disjointed alliance fueled by personal ambition and animosity towards the president.
In a sharply worded statement on X (formerly Twitter) on Thursday, July 3, 2025, Onanuga dismissed the coalition’s significance, arguing that most of the defectors had already distanced themselves from the All Progressives Congress (APC) long before the recent unveiling.
“Rotimi Amaechi’s soul left the APC in 2022 after losing the presidential primary to President Tinubu,” Onanuga wrote. “Abubakar Malami, the former Attorney-General, has never hidden his estrangement from the APC since Tinubu assumed leadership and since he lost the governorship bid in Kebbi.”
The opposition coalition was formally launched on Wednesday, July 2, 2025, in Abuja, following a high-profile meeting on Tuesday involving key political figures, including former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and 2023 Labour Party presidential candidate Peter Obi. The coalition adopted the ADC as its electoral vehicle and named former Senate President David Mark as interim national chairman and former Osun State Governor Rauf Aregbesola as interim national secretary.
The unveiling drew prominent defections across party lines, including former Minister of Transportation Rotimi Amaechi, former Minister of Sports Solomon Dalung, former APC National Chairman John Odigie-Oyegun, and other well-known figures such as Dino Melaye, Dele Momodu, Ireti Kingibe, Eyinnanya Abaribe, and Abubakar Malami.
Onanuga dismissed the coalition as a gathering of politically irrelevant individuals lacking shared purpose or vision.
“Hadi Sirika, now with the ADC, is facing trial for contract splitting and other allegations,” Onanuga added. “The renegade Rauf Aregbesola committed anti-party in the last Osun election and was expelled as an unfit APC member.”
“Kashim Imam and the octogenarian Chief John Odigie Oyegun are among the disgruntled politicians posturing as would-be saviours of Nigeria,” he continued. “Imam abandoned the APC after failing to secure the vice-presidential ticket in 2022. Chief Oyegun, a former party chairman, also lost interest in the APC and has been a foundational member of this coalition since its inception.”
He cautioned Nigerians to remain vigilant, warning that the coalition offers no real policy agenda beyond opposition to President Tinubu.
“My advice to Nigerians: Shine your eyes very well,” he wrote. “A political party with no clear agenda or ideology — whose members are united only by their hatred for President Tinubu — can not be good for our country. It will only set us back by decades.”
“These politicians are desperados, hungry for power, not for the benefit of Nigerians but for themselves,” he concluded.
While the ADC coalition has positioned itself as a “national rescue mission” ahead of the 2027 elections, Tinubu’s allies have dismissed its emergence as inconsequential to the APC’s political dominance.
