By Abraham Bolaji
The latest attempt by the so-called factions of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) to project unity appears, at best, an act of political theatre and, at worst, an exercise in futility. While Nafiu Bala and Hon. Leke Ajibade may have gathered behind closed doors to issue lofty declarations about reclaiming the party’s structure, the fundamental truth remains stubbornly unchanged: neither faction is recognized by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
That alone reduces the much-publicized “reconciliation meeting” to little more than whipping a dead horse—a dramatic display without legal muscle or institutional weight.
For months, the ADC has stumbled from one internal crisis to another, with rival camps issuing press statements, suspensions, counter-suspensions, and claims to legitimacy. Yet the one entity empowered by law to validate party leadership—INEC—has consistently refused to recognize both the Ajibade-aligned group and the Bala-aligned group. Their legitimacy, therefore, exists only on paper they printed themselves.
In that context, Saturday’s closed-door session offers nothing new to the party faithful or the wider political space. It was a meeting that resolved nothing, clarified nothing, and changed nothing. To observers, it looked more like a symbolic gathering staged to claim relevance than an effort rooted in legal authority or internal democratic consensus.
Indeed, if the ADC’s crisis has proved anything, it is that parallel congresses and factional press briefings cannot replace due process. No amount of photo-ops or well-worded statements can substitute for the formal recognition required from the electoral umpire. Until INEC validates a legitimate leadership structure, both factions remain political actors without a legal platform—custodians of a party structure that exists only in name.
What is more troubling is how these repeated theatrics further weaken a party already bleeding credibility. The rank-and-file membership is left confused, stakeholders are drifting away, and supporters have grown weary of a leadership contest that produces no lawful outcome. Meanwhile, the factions continue to jostle for visibility instead of confronting the reality that the ADC needs a fresh start, not recycled alignments.
Saturday’s meeting might have been intended to project strength, but it only highlighted the vacuum at the heart of the party’s crisis. A house divided is bad enough; a house led by factions unrecognized by the law is an entirely different tragedy.
The ADC must decide whether it wishes to rebuild through transparent, INEC-supervised processes—or continue the charade of factional meetings that lead nowhere. Until then, gatherings like the one held over the weekend will remain what they are: political choreography performed to revive a structure that, for all practical purposes, has no legal pulse.
– Abraham Bolaji writes from Abuja.
