AriseTV Political Editor, Sumner Sambo, has warned that the African Democratic Congress (ADC) is too entangled in legal crises to serve as a viable platform for defectors, insisting that the party has no one to blame but itself.
Speaking on AriseTV on The Morning Show on Monday, Sambo said politicians looking to leave the APC should think carefully before jumping into the ADC.
“I wouldn’t advise that they should go ahead with the ADC right now. Because the ADC is entangled with so much problems, and it could be a challenge, and it is not the fault of the APC”, Sambo said.
He explained that beyond the well-known case involving Nafi Bala Gombe, there is another separate suit questioning the legitimacy of Ralph Nwosu’s leadership.
“Don’t forget, just last week, I had a one-on-one with one of those who have been traveling with the ADC very well,” Sambo said.
“He actually told me that, look, apart from all these issues that we’re talking with Nafi Bala Gombe, there’s also another case which actually claims that even Ralph Nwosu was an illegal or illegitimate executive. And so the case is there separately from this.”
The ADC was recently derecognised by INEC following a court order over its factional crisis. But rather than accept that the problem is internal, the party has blamed the ruling APC for its troubles.
Sambo dismissed that narrative.
“Let’s be very frank and fair,” he said. “The APC is harvesting from this challenge, but also the ADC leaders knew some of this.”
He said he had expected that those strategizing to use the ADC would have done proper due diligence.
“I would have thought that they had strategies that took a look at all of this before getting into the ADC,” Sambo said.
But he understands why the ADC was attractive in the first place.
“I understand the appeal of the ADC because of the alphabetical order,” he said. “Don’t forget, when the APC was being formed in 2013 that was the same thing that they did. They look for a political party that will lift the name of the party up so that the PDP name will be under.”
He recalled that Mallam Nasir El-Rufai had already hinted during an AriseTV appearance that they had another party in mind.
“And if you listened to Mallam Nasir El-Rufai when he appeared here on the Arise News during the formation, he said that they already had another party,” Sambo said.
He also revealed that there have been attempts to approach another political platform.
“I heard that they’ve been trying to approach the Nigerian Democratic Congress owned by Seriake Dickson,” Sambo said.
But he warned that moving to newly registered parties comes with its own risks.
“They should also be very careful,” he cautioned. “Because I also heard from other people saying that these other courts where the new registered parties were registered by an act of court, and so if they do approach some of those parties, somebody may go back and challenge or appeal some of those cases that led to the registration of these parties by INEC.”
He ended with a pointed question.
“But is this how our quality is supposed to be?” Sambo asked. “No, it is interesting that you know.”
The core issue, according to Sambo’s analysis, is that the ADC’s problems are self-inflicted. The party has blamed the APC, but as he put it directly: it is “not the fault of the APC.”
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