In Nigeria’s tumultuous political landscape, the African Democratic Congress (ADC) has recently emerged as a party cloaked in the rhetoric of reform, yet shrouded in the inefficacy of performance. Its actors—dismissively labeled as “puppets” by critics—have amplified their voices across the public square, but their echoes remain devoid of tangible governance footprints. In a nation already exhausted by recycled promises, Nigeria is compelled to ask: is the ADC a genuine alternative, or just another chorus in the orchestra of noise?
The party’s pronouncements ring loud with the language of revolution, but their operational output appears dwarfed by their ambition. Professor Wole Soyinka once cautioned, “Power is domination, control, and therefore a very selective form of truth which is a lie.” The ADC, in its quest to position itself as the conscience of Nigeria, risks mirroring the very systems of deception it claims to oppose, projecting vibrancy without vision and noise without nuance.
Political analysts argue that the ADC has perfected the art of media dramatics while failing to cultivate the substantive grassroots strategies needed for electoral longevity. Dr. Chidi Odinkalu, a noted human rights scholar, remarked that, “In Nigerian politics, rhetoric is cheap, but structures are expensive. The tragedy is that most ‘new’ parties invest in noise and neglect the structures that sustain relevance.” The ADC’s inflated proclamations may ignite fleeting attention, but without organizational depth, they evaporate in the wind of Nigeria’s unforgiving political climate.
The party’s branding as a ‘movement of the people’ contrasts sharply with its internal realities. Factional battles and personality-driven agendas dominate its machinery, exposing the frailty of its foundations. Hannah Arendt, the political theorist, once observed, “The most radical revolutionary will become a conservative the day after the revolution.” In the ADC’s case, its leaders seem to have become mere puppeteers, orchestrating spectacles while Nigeria’s citizens, weary from unkept promises, watch in disillusionment.
What lingers is a gnawing fear that the ADC will not break the cycle but reinforce it—adding more clamor to a space already saturated with political theatrics. Until it can translate its noise into coherent strategies and its rhetoric into measurable outcomes, the ADC risks becoming a caricature of its own ideals. For now, it remains trapped in the paradox of loudness without leadership, of puppets moving without purpose, of a party celebrated for its volume but forgotten for its silence in action.
– Inah Boniface Ocholi writes from Ayah – Igalamela/Odolu LGA, Kogi state.
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