Some political stakeholders on Sunday, gathered in Ilorin, Kwara State capital and jointly agreed that the new African Democratic Congress (ADC) is a timely strategic move by the opposition to salvage “troubled Nigeria” from imminent collapse.
According to the participants from across the country, it is only a strong opposition free of direct and indirect infuence from the rulling party that can wrest Nigeria from the situation they referred to as an irony of a collapsing rich nation.
In his welcome address, the governorship aspirant of the All Progressives Congress (APC,) Prof. Abdulmumin Yinka Ajia, at his annual colloquium, stated that ADC is good enough as a credible coalition platform for the opposition.
“It is a timely and strategic move to rescue Nigeria from the stranglehold of state capture and creeping one-man rule,” he said.
According to him, ADC and other allied platforms symbolise more than party politics: “they are instruments of democratic restoration, vehicles of civic renewal, and tools to return power to the people.
Speaking on the theme: “Interrogating the Nigerian State, Its Democratic Institutions, and the Looming Threats of State Capture,” Ajia said: “their emergence is a reminder that democratic expansion and renewal is not only possible, but also already underway.”
He asserted that: “The Colloquium stands in solidarity with all efforts, formal and informal, aimed at rebuilding the Nigerian State into a truly accountable, inclusive, and citizen-serving republic.
“This forum captures the urgency of our times, explained the essence of the platform as beyond an intellectual forum but as a civic duty, an annual call to interrogate power, demand reform, and reawaken the democratic spirit among citizens, thinkers, and changemakers,” he said.
In his presentation, the leader of “O to Ge” political movement that challenged and ousted the Saraki political movement in 2019, Akogun Iyiola Oyedepo urged Nigerians to erect new virtues and values in the country.
As an agitator, he posited that Nigeria has not really benefited from the ongoing democracy, saying: “26 years of democracy has not substantially taken us far from dictatorship in content, if not in form.
“The structure built by the founding fathers has completely collapsed. We need new founding fathers with new values, new structure and new national purpose.”
While the national coordinator of Obidients’ movement, Tanko Yunus rather took the floor to eulogise the presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP,) as he urged political awareness among Nigerians.
Speaking in the same vein, the state chairman/coordinator of Civil Society Organisations (CSO,) on Gender-Based Violence (GBV,) Antonio Oshinewe listed various challenges generally confronting the judiciary, suggesting solutions to them.
