Disagreements have reportedly emerged within the African Democratic Congress in the South-West over the involvement of party structures in the political activities of its presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, ahead of the 2027 general election.
Some party leaders, including state chairmen and governorship candidates, alleged that Atiku had been relying on personal associates and political allies to coordinate activities in the region instead of working through established party structures.
The development, according to party insiders, has generated dissatisfaction among members and affected efforts to build the party’s campaign machinery across the six South-West states.
The region is considered politically important in the 2027 contest, particularly as it is the home base of President Bola Tinubu, who is expected to seek re-election.
Reports indicated that some ADC governorship candidates and other party leaders met in Ibadan, Oyo State, on September 4 to express their concerns to the party’s National Secretary, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola.
At the meeting, the leaders reportedly asked the national leadership to clarify whether Atiku intended to work with the party’s established structures or continue engaging his personal associates in political activities across the region.
A governorship candidate who attended the meeting, but requested anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the matter, said several leaders raised concerns about what they considered the exclusion of the party from the presidential candidate’s activities.
He said the participants insisted that Atiku should recognise the party structures responsible for producing candidates for the 2027 governorship, National Assembly and State House of Assembly elections.
“The meeting was hot. We told the national secretariat, through Aregbesola, that Atiku must respect the party structure and channel his campaign through it.
“Many of us at the meeting complained about the sidelining of the party in the South-West by our presidential candidate. We rejected his [Atiku’s] practice of using his friends and loyalists to run political activities that the party should ordinarily have been engaged in.
“We insisted that the party structures that produced all the governorship, national and state assembly candidates for the 2027 elections are the genuine party structures with which Atiku must engage,” he said.
Another party source disclosed that Atiku held a virtual meeting with ADC leaders in the South-West on September 5, a day after the Ibadan meeting, during which he reportedly assured them that their complaints would be addressed.
According to the source, the former Vice-President promised to involve party members more directly and requested five names from each state for appointment into his campaign committee.
However, the source claimed that the promised changes had yet to produce the expected results.
Further concerns were reportedly raised over campaign funding, with some party officials alleging that Atiku had not provided adequate financial support for political activities in the region.
An ADC official cited a meeting involving the six South-West state chairmen in Abuja on September 17, claiming that the presidential candidate did not provide transport assistance to the party executives.
The official suggested that the experience had further weakened confidence among some state leaders, although the allegation was not independently established.
An ADC House of Assembly candidate in Ekiti State also expressed concern about the visibility of Atiku’s campaign in the region, attributing the situation to what he described as inadequate engagement with party members.
“You can see nothing is happening in the South-West ADC. Everywhere is dull, and that is because the party has not been engaged by our presidential candidate. Only his friends have been involved in his campaign activities,” he said.
In Lagos State, the Chairman of the ADC Local Government Chairmen, Adewole Ijaogbomo, also called on Atiku to address the complaints, alleging that a small group of individuals had taken control of campaign-related activities.
He claimed that established party leaders were being excluded while some individuals were allegedly using their positions to pursue personal interests.
“Most of the people championing Atiku’s cause in the South-West, especially in Lagos State, are just positioning themselves to grab the campaign fund for their selfish interests. The main party leaders are not being carried along in all their activities.
“A few people are trying to take over the campaign activities. The majority of the party leaders are not involved in Lagos State. The real ADC leaders are being excluded from Atiku’s political activities. I see that Atiku doesn’t want to offend anybody, but he must address this matter urgently,” Ijaogbomo said.
However, Atiku’s camp has rejected the allegations, insisting that the former Vice-President has not sidelined party executives or disregarded the ADC’s established structures.
Atiku’s Director of Strategic Communication, Phrank Shaibu, described the claims as untrue, explaining that state coordinators and campaign councils had not yet been formally announced or inaugurated.
“The claim that state party executives in the South-West have been sidelined is untrue. The state coordinators and their respective campaign councils have neither been announced nor inaugurated at the state level. There is therefore no state campaign structure that has been constituted and then excluded,” Shaibu said.
He further maintained that Atiku remained committed to the party’s leadership and internal arrangements, describing the allegations as politically motivated.
“Atiku is a party man who respects the party’s structure, its members and its leaders. The suggestion that he has been running his political activities by bypassing them is opposition conjecture, not a genuine complaint from our members,” he added.
The disagreement highlights the importance of internal coordination and cooperation between presidential candidates and party structures as political activities gather momentum ahead of the 2027 general election.
