The Lagos State Chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) views the formal defection of Mr. Peter Obi to the African Democratic Congress (ADC) as the long-awaited unveiling of a contraption deliberately assembled to undermine Nigeria. What has occurred is not political evolution; it is the public activation of a coalition forged in grievance, sustained by falsehood, and animated by an unhealthy appetite for national dislocation.
We nevertheless congratulate the ADC that Mr. Peter Obi eventually yielded to their prolonged plea -or is it their instruction – to come on board. Either way, the pretence of independence has now been formally abandoned. The choice of venue for this declaration is also not lost on discerning, pan-Nigerian electorates who understand political coding and symbolism. Nothing about this exercise was accidental; everything was calculated.
It is now abundantly clear that a predictable opposition can neither thrive nor have a meaningful place in a vibrant democracy. Long before this moment, even a political neophyte knew that Mr. Obi would not contest elections twice on the platform of the same political party – judging by his well-documented record of political promiscuity. His latest move merely confirms a pattern of convenience politics masquerading as principle.
Let us be clear: the ADC has not discovered ideology overnight. It has merely confirmed its true identity as a political scrapyard where rejected ambitions, electoral failures, and serial aspirants converge to rehearse recycled anger. This is not a coalition of ideas; it is a cartel of convenience. It is not about Nigeria; it is about power without responsibility.
Mr. Obi’s entry seals what Nigerians already knew. This so-called coalition was conceived with a sole beneficiary in mind – process be damned, zoning suspended, internal democracy euthanized. The loud pretence of moral purity has collapsed under the weight of naked ambition. The hypocrisy is now official.
Indeed, Nigerians cannot but wonder when Mr. Peter Obi will summon the courage to inform his handful of sympathizers that he has already agreed in principle to serve as a running mate to a pre-determined, perennial presidential candidate – a political factory-reset decision taken even before the coalition’s public unveiling. In this arrangement, consultation is cosmetic, participation is decorative, and ambition is centrally allocated.
More worrisome still is the tragic symbolism with which Mr. Peter Obi chose to end the year – by returning to the very political ecosystem he often described as a nest of criminality and corruption. Having built a brand on performative moral outrage, he has now openly embraced the same characters and structures he once condemned with evangelical fervor. History, it appears, is repeating itself: Peter Obi, like the first Peter, continues to betray the people – not under pressure, not under duress, but out of calculated self-interest. Nigerians must therefore take note: a man who can so conveniently return to his vomit, without remorse or even a whimper, cannot be trusted with the destiny of a nation. Those who choose to place their hopes in such political inconsistency do so at their own peril.
More troubling – and Nigerians must not look away – is the shameful refusal of the principal actors in this coalition of confusion to unequivocally condemn terrorism and its many murderous offshoots. This silence is deliberate. It is a cowardly calculation designed to avoid upsetting home-based sympathies and regional comfort zones. Any political formation that cannot clearly denounce the slaughter of innocent Nigerians, for fear of losing sectional applause, has forfeited the moral right to seek national leadership. Silence in the face of terror is not neutrality; it is complicity.
While this coalition sharpens propaganda as weapons against the Nigerian state, the APC-led Federal Government under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR, is confronting hard truths – stabilizing the economy, dismantling criminal networks, restoring investor confidence, and rebuilding institutions weakened by years of reckless governance. One side traffics in noise, sabotage, and wishful failure; the other delivers governance.
This explains the coalition’s obsession with exaggeration, misinformation, and international pity-seeking. With no record of transformative leadership to present, chaos becomes their campaign strategy. Hardship is weaponized. National challenges are converted into talking points. They pray for failure because they have nothing credible to offer.
Nigerians have seen this script before -and they will reject it again. No amount of political make-up, hurried alliances, or sanctimonious sermons can disguise the emptiness of this project. Democracy is not strengthened by desperation, nor is nationhood built by those who wish the country ill merely to validate their personal ambition.
The Lagos APC assures Nigerians that the Renewed Hope Agenda remains irreversible. The coming together of political weapons fashioned against Nigeria will fail spectacularly.
At the polls, Nigerians will once again rise above deception and decisively reject their nemesis.
The future belongs to builders, not professional complainers; to patriots, not political tourists; to courage, not cowardly silence in the face of terror.
Mogaji (Hon) Seye Oladejo
Lagos APC Spokesman
31/12/25
