• LP’s lifeline tasks coalition’s seriousness, patriotism, says Shekarau

The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has dismissed insinuations that the court verdict affirming Senator Nenadi Usman as acting National Chairman of the Labour Party (LP) could affect the opposition parties’ coalition aimed at ousting President Bola Tinubu and the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the 2027 general elections.
  
However, Convener of League of Northern Democrats, Senator Ibrahim Shekarau, said the recent court order directing the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to recognise the Usman-led Caretaker Committee as the authentic leadership of the LP is a good omen for opposition politicians.
   
The National Publicity Secretary of ADC, Bolaji Abdullahi, told The Guardian in Abuja that the ruling would not substantially alter anything heading into the 2027 elections.
  
Julius Abure, who was the National Secretary of LP, was elected as National Chairman by a faction of the party in 2021, a position he held despite back and forth, and was finally removed by the apex court.
  
Following his removal, INEC swiftly recognised Usman as the legitimate chairman of LP. Obi, who came third in the 2023 presidential elections on the platform of LP, left the party as a result of a protracted leadership crisis and conflicting court judgments.
  
Due to what many describe as the perfect resolution of the lingering legal issues and uncertainties, there are fears in many quarters that Obi will return to his original party.
  
In his response, Abdullahi said Obi and Usman had been leading members of the coalition and that the ruling would not affect the coalition. 
  
“If anything, this judgment will only make the coalition stronger,” he added. The Federal High Court in Abuja, which removed the Abure-led executive of the LP and the candidates produced under them for purposes of elections, also held that the evidence before it established that Abure’s tenure as the national chairman of the LP had since elapsed.

SHEKARAU said the positive developments in the leading opposition parties, including the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and LP, gave the coalition a fresh window to demonstrate its seriousness and patriotic determination to rescue the country from poor governance.
  
The former governor of Kano State, who represented Kano Central in the 9th Senate, said the coalition of political parties which he canvassed, “has become more urgent” if the opposition was serious to upstage the ruling APC and President Tinubu.

Referencing a similar collaboration that birthed the APC, the former governor who contested the 2011 presidential poll on the platform of the defunct All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), said the current coalition of persons might not bear fruit as it appears to be founded on individual ambitions. 
  
Speaking through his media aide, Dr Yau Sule Yau, the former governor recalled how the merger of parties on the APC platform succeeded, stressing that patriotism was key because “political parties fused together, not individuals; that was why it succeeded.” He maintained that the danger of the ongoing coalition on the ADC platform could be traced to the strong political ambition of some of the promoters.