FORMER Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, has revealed that the coalition of opposition parties currently rallying under the African Democratic Congress (ADC) may register an entirely new political party ahead of the 2027 general elections as a strategic backup, News Point Nigeria reports.
Speaking during an exclusive interview with the Hausa Service of Radio France International (RFI) on Wednesday night, El-Rufai sounded the alarm over what he described as a calculated attempt by the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to infiltrate and destabilize the ADC – a party recently adopted as a unified platform for opposition forces.
“We know APC can infiltrate our coalition,” El-Rufai stated bluntly.
“That is why we have a backup plan. If they succeed in causing chaos in ADC, we will simply migrate to another party.”
The former governor, who has emerged as one of the architects of the opposition realignment, accused the APC of deploying a carrot-and-stick strategy: enticing opposition members with appointments, cash incentives, or automatic party tickets, while threatening those who resist with investigations by anti-corruption agencies like the EFCC, ICPC, and the Code of Conduct Bureau.
According to El-Rufai, the APC-led federal government is using state machinery to pressure political actors into joining its ranks or, alternatively, to cripple their participation in the upcoming polls.
“They’ll dig up old ADC members and instigate them to reject the alliance publicly. This is part of the plan to create internal disputes and render the party unusable for our coalition,” he warned.
Despite the unveiling of the ADC in Abuja as the opposition’s main political vehicle just days ago, El-Rufai’s comments suggest that the coalition leaders are deeply skeptical of the long-term viability of any party that can be manipulated from within.
He further alleged that the APC has been sponsoring internal crises in major opposition parties like the PDP, Labour Party, and NNPP in a bid to fragment their influence ahead of the next general election in 2027.
“What the APC is doing is not democracy. It’s political sabotage,” El-Rufai said.
His comments come amid rising tensions over the future of Nigeria’s opposition landscape, especially as 2027 approaches and the opposition begins a fragile coalition-building effort.
