Chief Ralph Okey Nwosu, the founding chairman of African Democratic Congress (ADC) was also the national chairman of the largely unknown party until the recent coalition it went into which had thrown it into the limelight. In this interview by SAM Nwaoko, he speaks on a number of issues about the party and the current controversies around it.
The NEC of your party dissolved the National Working Committee in July 2025. On what constitutional and procedural grounds do you maintain that this action was valid and binding sir?
I as the national chairman and founder did nothing secretly rather, the NRC of 137 persons was involved. INEC was involved and they sent between five to seven persons to the event. The first NEC we did all our members were there and we asked each person: do we want to form an alliance, a merger or a coalition with the other groups that are interested in our vision to rescue Nigeria? All of us, 100 percent unanimously said that was what we wanted to do, that was why the NWC and the national chairman’s office was mandated to carry on. That was what we had always wanted to do but it was challenging, we didn’t have the money to do so. It has always been that almost during elections we would be begging people to come and contest elections. So, we want to build a legacy especially after seeing how all the other parties are falling. So, we moved a motion, INEC carried it and wrote a report, within 48 hours we sent our own report to INEC. INEC has issued us the CTC of all those things that we did.
Then, when we said that we wanted to form this coalition, we gave the other people copies of our constitution so that they can go and check and see. They came back and said in your constitution you said that if new members come in, they have to spend two years before they can be officers of the party or contest any election. What has to be do are two things. We can give waiver and secondly, the NEC at a national convention can amend the constitution for the effective running of the party. So, the next meeting we had, we decided to waive all the conditions and come up with what that would make it easy for everybody so that all of us can work as almost equal members. No discrimination. So, we passed another resolution that the two years has been amended that if these coalition members come, by the time they come they can even aspire to be members of the executive and can contest election under ADC. We passed the resolution, and INEC was there. And it is also provided for in our constitution. The condition we gave to these coalition partners is that this is not a transaction. We as a party, our goal has always been to rescue Nigeria and put Nigeria on the trajectory of development as a nation with global influence. That, what we expected was that they too should commit that before we can go ahead, that it must be a coalition of all the opposition leaders. At different times, PDP wanted to come into the party, we said no. At a different time, CPC wanted to come, we said no and we said everybody – PDP leaders, APC leaders, CPC, that they are one group; then Labour and all other political parties. We said that they must all come together. We also said that the day they would sign, that I and our people would sign so that they will see that we have formed a winning coalition. So, the day we all agreed and signed, we did something for the benefit of the public on the 2nd of June, where I announced that we all agreed that the day they all of them would sign we would resign so that we can form a leadership that everybody would be comfortable with. But then, while we did that we also wrote to INEC that we were going to do something more official, what is by law, ADC law, INEC guidelines and the electoral guidelines. We gave INEC more than 21 days, so we held the NEC on the 29th of July. INEC was given appropriate notice. In that full NEC, and I repeat, our NEC is more than 130 persons. We have 37 state chairmen – that is 36 states plus the FCT; we had all members of NEC, we have all zonal executives, and you know we have six zones; each of these six zones had about 11 officers as part of NEC. Then we also had the NWC, which had 39 persons. We were all there and we moved three different motions, one of them on the dissolution of the NWC and the zonal leadership. That resolution was passed.
Before then, we also moved a motion that David Mark, who was nominated by all the stakeholders including even the ADC who had looked into the matter. They all accepted and former Governor Aregbesola was also nominated. They were to be chairman and secretary; then the other person was Bolaji (Abdullahi). This was the case for them and many other ADC persons including the legacy (old ADC) members. We had about eight members there. These eight members include DrAjadi, Dr Mani Amah, Chief Festus Igbinoba, NkemUkandu, Senator (Mrs) Patricia Akwashiki; and then the youth leader. They were all part of the new announcement of what the leadership would be. All the NEC, all the over 130 members including BalaNafiu and everybody voted that these people be elected to handle the affairs of the party because the party was now becoming the major political party in Nigeria with Atiku Abubakar as member; with Peter Obi as member, with RotimiAmaechi as member with Nasir El-Rufai and so on. We agreed, so it is not between me and any other people, no. we all voted that David Mark, Aregbesola, BolajiAdbullahi and all these other people I mentioned should now constitute that new caretaker interim leadership while we voted to collapse the NWC of the old and so on. All these are in the public because INEC has it in their records and we also have it in our secretarial records, just as it is also in the media.
So for anybody to come up and say he is deputy national chairman after all of those is wrong. That does not exist anymore as of July 29, 2025.
So, what you are saying is that after July 29, NafiuBala could not be legitimately called the deputy national chairman of the party?
We have six deputy national chairmen. We have six because in our constitution unlike other political parties which have only two deputy national chairmen – North and South. In our constitution, we don’t allow anything that would create dichotomy. We don’t do north and south, all the deputy national chairmen have functions. Deputy national chairman in charge of politics is Dr Ajadi. Assuming that I only resigned or they voted to vote me out, the only person that should take over is deputy national chairman in charge of politics. It should have been Dr Ajadi, but the whole of the NWC in which myself and Dr Ajadi, Bala Nafiu, Dr Anayo Arinze, Dr Mani, Dr Akwashiki were all in the old one that was dissolved by the NEC. It was a 137-member body. Let us even assume that there was absenteeism on that day of two or three or four persons, the quorum in our constitution is even just one-third. But in this meeting – because of its importance – almost everybody was there. We paid for their transport, we paid for their hotel. They were all there. The Bala in question was there and so on. The old does not exist anymore. Bala stopped being deputy national chairman in charge of party and legislative affairs, so it doesn’t exist. So, how INEC and his lawyers and the courts are manufacturing things, we do not know. Our constitution is very clear. This is not between me and Bala, can the NEC of a party resolve to admit and elect new people if the condition is right; and dissolve what was? The answer is yes, they have the right because then they are acting as the national convention, which they have the authority of the constitution to act as. So, it is very clear. In essence, Bala and the position of deputy national chairman do not exist. If Bala is interested in contesting for the deputy national chairman position, or if Bala is interested in contesting for the national chairman, he should have said so, so that he would be free to contest during the national convention that we are about to do. If the convention approves to open up the contest, then everybody can recontest. However, we have already appointed people and we said during the national convention, it is for the national convention to confirm the things that we did, and that is the convention we are waiting for to ratify what we did. But the NEC has the power of convention to do what we did, and when we say ‘power of convention’, it means that it has the powers and full authority of the party and the constitution to do what we did.
From what you’ve said so far, INEC officials were present at those key meetings leading to those decisions. How would you now reconcile that fact with the recent decision of INEC derecognizing the new leaders of the party?
I don’t want to say INEC, I want to talk about the INEC chairman, Amupitan. Amupitan is APC member. So, he is playing APC role, not INEC role. I am sure that if you ask members of the EPM of INEC, and members of the commission from the Legal Department and, possibly other departments because when they came they brought members from other departments which are not just the EPM – EPM is the Election and Party Monitoring – if you take members from there and their legal unit and ADR unit, they would say what happened. They were all there, people from different departments of INEC. I am sure that on oath, they can produce their report and they would see there that the position of the deputy national chairman or the zonal chairman of Bala no longer exists. The NEC exercised its power and stepped all of us down so that the party can become bigger. I even asked Bala occasionally: Are you not happy that the small party we were growing had become a phenomenal organisation? What has happened is that if the government in place today coerce governors with billions of Naira to woo them to join them there is nothing they cannot do. That is what I think is playing out with Bala and the other noise you are hearing around ADC.
Each time I encourage people to understand that Bala is not a faction. He is just an individual, one person is not a faction. You need six different national chairmen. Even if we all resigned and Bala did not resign, the NEC dissolved all the councils. Does it mean that Bala remained undissolved and has a super vote that can supersede that of over 130 persons? It doesn’t make sense. I tell our people that it is not a transaction. We want to win elections and be part of the government. If you make it a transaction, then the aim of ADC will be defeated because ADC has always dreamed to be a party that is meant to rescue this country from where it is going. It has taken us about 20 years, but we remain purposeful. And if by the election of 2027 the victory comes, we would have made a lot of sacrifices, we would have burnt ourselves out, but we would have achieved one major thing. One thing I am pleading with everybody, including members of the coalition is that, by the grace of God, Nigerians have accepted ADC as their party. Therefore is election is winnable and we must deliver for the Nigerian people. No more business as usual. But Bala as deputy national chairman does not exist after July 29th. Bala does not have a super vote or a super structure that is more powerful than the other 137 members of the NEC.
There is also the issue of your former presidential candidate who is also claiming to be leading a faction.
Now, I think Dumebi’s case is pathetic and I suggest he should get a mental examination. Somehow, he played the game and became the ADC presidential candidate. This now got into his head. As soon as he was announced the presidential candidate – I think within the same week or that same month, he announced that the NWC had been dissolved. He began to take power into his hands. How can you, a presidential candidate, announce that the structures of the party has been dissolved? So, we had problems with him but we have managed him. If you are a candidate of a party, you were a candidate to contest the 2023 election, this doesn’t give you the right to be a candidate forever. The powers-that-be at the moment has so much money and they are throwing it around and Dumebi might be into it. Which party of the constitution of the party gave him such powers? You claim you are a member of the party, you took our ticket and wasted it, you are supposed to be hiding your face for wasting our ticket, and not going about causing disruption.
Is it right to say that you personally founded this party – was this party founded by you?
Yes to a good extent. You know that a party cannot be founded by one person really because, by the constitution of Nigeria, you have to have people from across at least three quarters of the states of Nigeria. So, I invited everybody who was there at the beginning. I invited them to my house in Awka. I provided for everybody, I gave them accommodation and brought out the documentation I had done and I told them that we needed to form a party that would rescue Nigeria. We put it together that day and by the time we applied for registration when INEC came for inspection, I told them (INEC) not to look at how small we were, but that we are going to take this party to the Villa. And, people have remained with the party since then, we thought it was going to be a journey of four or eight years, but it has been over 20 years. Some people have fallen by the wayside, not all of the people have remained but credit must be given to all of them.
You spent so much nurturing this party. May I ask if the coalition people gave you money to get this through?
When I say this, you can also find out from Chief Obasanjo: In 2007, I personally ran after Professor Pat Utomi to come and run for president in our party. That was the way we wanted to brand our party. he came to run. Because I had to do some extra things to get him to run, even I printed some of his posters and circulated it all around Lagos and Abuja, on my own, some people said Prof Pat Utomi had bought the party. So, it is not now that I hear things like that. In 2018, Obasanjo did a major due diligence of all the political parties in Nigeria and settled for ADC. He collapsed a major organisation that he founded, Coalition for Nigeria Movement meant to rescue Nigeria – made up of civil societies and critical stakeholders, they adopted ADC and collapsed CNM into ADC. OlagunsoyeOyinlola of Osun State and Donald Duke of Cross River State were the ones who championed the Coalition for Nigeria Movement that Obasanjo set up. And they all collapsed into ADC. It was meant that Governor Oyinlola would be chairman of the party, and I willingly accepted because we always wanted to build a party for tomorrow. By then people said I had sold the party to Obasanjo and so on and so forth. By 2023, our party decided to endorse Labour Party for president. Everybody said Chief Nwosu had sold the party to Peter Obi and Labour Party and so on. Then, in 2023 December, we started this journey. We concluded it by 2025 and now people are saying Chief Nwosu has sold the party. But you can start from Prof Pat Utomi. Ask him how much he paid when he supposedly bought the party. You can talk to President Obasanjo or Governor Oyinlola, who was supposed to be our chairman, if they hadn’t gone back to PDP. I have never collected one dime from President Obasanjo’s house but I have the privilege now, he is like a father to me and a guardian to the party. I walk into his house any time and when I go there, I have the privilege of eating on the same table with him. I also spend a lot of quality time with him. Now it one has come again, by the grace of God, this one has taken proper shape and so on.
So, you are very sure the ADC would be in the Villa by next year?
Sure…! Now the ADC is no longer about me. David Mark deliberately did something and we all appreciate him: Instead of showing full force, he stayed behind wanting the Nigerian people to won the project. And now Nigerian people have owned the project, he was not particularly overbearing. He stayed behind because he wanted Nigerians to own the project. Go to everywhere now, it is the ADC that you are hearing. In the North, over 85 percent of their votes will be for ADC. In the South West, I can assure you that as at today, over 60 percent of the votes in the South West will be that of ADC because the South West is convinced that even with Tinubu being president, they have not gained anything in terms of value or character or even in any way as to when Obasanjo or Awolowo led the South West and featured prominently in Nigerian politics. The South West was well respected and Nigerians felt good with their leadership, and their leadership up till today still towers above that of Tinubu, despite the fact that Tinubu is in the Villa. Being in the Villa has even reduced the South West. The leadership of Obafemi Awolowo in Nigeria and in the South West particularly, has done more good than what the Tinubu government has done therefore, if you vote today – proper vote – not the one they are planning to write, the South West will tell you the type of leadership they want. So, even in the South West, ADC will win. Go to the South/South and the South East, ADC will have over 70 percent. APC will not have any base in this election, that is why they are trying to collapse everything to see if they can run this election alone and get coronation. They want coronation not by performance, they want coronation by intimidation and blackmail.
So, you are very sure they won’t do coronation?
No. As a matter of fact, they have failed with this one. This is because we took time to do the appropriate things. God is part of this journey. When David Mark and Aregbesola were earlier announced, all the coalition partners and ADC already agreed and the NEC voted for them; the NEC dissolved the previous executive and so on. Some people were worried but now there is nobody who is worried. David Mark has integrity, the same thing with Aregbesola. They have integrity that no INEC person, no judge would dare tarnish. You tarnish their name and you will see the consequence… not even Tinubu can tarnish the name of a young man who sacrificed for Nigeria and eventually became a war general who kept this country intact, and because you want to get coronated, you think you can soil his name? No way, you cannot do it. Recall that David Mark led the National Assembly when Nigeria was in a quagmire with the issue of the health of President Yar’Adua, just like he led and saved our democracy, here again he will succeed and would put an ADC president who would begin the turnaround of the Nigerian nation.
If you meet President Tinubu today, what would you tell him?
I will say I am disappointed because we all worked together for NADECO. Some of us contributed money and then all of a sudden we got the military out and one of us now has the presidency – however he might have done it – is this why we got the military out? So that we now have a fascism of a sort? He is a complete disappointment. I will tell him Mr President I am disappointed, you should just resign and look Nigerians in the face and apologise to them. Appeal to them, apologise to them and then resign.
Credit: Nigerian Tribune