The African Democratic Congress (ADC) youths have warned President Bola Tinubu against manipulating the process of appointing successor of INEC Chairman Prof. Mahmood Yakubu whose tenure is ending in December 2025.

Speaking under the platform of the African Democratic Youth Congress (ADYC) on Tuesday in Abuja, the youths insisted that no matter who is appointed, they would defeat the ruling APC in 2027—even if Tinubu makes his media aide, Bayo Onanuga, the head of INEC.

Politics is about numbers. They can bring all the money they want, but we will still defeat them in 2027.

“We saw Onanuga asking how market. The waters have been tested. We have other elections coming up and that is when they will know how market is because it is going to be fire for fire.

“On INEC, if Tinubu so wishes, he can make Bayo Onanuga the chairman but we in ADC, come 2027, we will make INEC do the needful. We have had enough. 

“We are going to defend our votes from the polling units to the final collation centre. They can bring trillions of Naira. We are going to collect the money but we will vote ADC.

“If the president is going to choose the next INEC chairman, he should put Nigeria first. Someone who has integrity and who has the interest of Nigeria first and not given to primordial or partisan interests,” the group said.

ADYC leaders including National Coordinator Ruqayya Lamido Dodo, Director General Murtala Haliru Dantoro, Joshua Nweke Anioma, and others, all spoke at the meeting.

Dantoro described last Saturday’s bye-elections as “a show of shame,” lamenting that vote-buying was rampant.

Noting that vote buying is criminal, he said “What happened in my state, Niger, was heartbreaking. To be in a country whereby we cannot make decisions. Our decisions are baseless.”

“In Niger, they were paying people for as low as N2,000. I don’t know who said they should do that or who asked them to do that but we want the president to take note. It is unfortunate what happened but we pray Nigeria gets better.

“Our message is simple: We refuse to inherit a broken system. We are here to fix it with the strength of unity. We are not just a youth wing; we are the driving force of the ideologies of the Coalition party, African Democratic Congress ADC, and the future of this nation.”

Mrs Dodo also stressed that young Nigerians are tired of being sidelined.

“For decades, we have heard the same tired promises. We have been called the ‘leaders of tomorrow’, a phrase that has become little more than a polite way to sideline us from today’s critical decisions. 

“Our generation is tired of being spectators in a nation that belongs to us. We are tired of seeing our potentials wasted, our voices ignored, and our future held hostage by a political system that has failed us repeatedly.

“Today, we are here to declare that the African Democratic Youth Congress, the ADYC, is changing that narrative. We are not just a youth wing; we are the vanguard of a new movement. We are not waiting for tomorrow; we are building our nation today. We are the architects of a new Nigeria.

“The ADYC is the engine room of the African Democratic Congress ADC. Our mandate is simple but profound: to re-engineer Nigeria’s political landscape by championing the core values of transparency, accountability, and radical inclusion,” she said.

The group said its plan is to grow a nationwide movement from the grassroots up, empowering young people across states, local governments, and communities.

“We are not interested in a top-down approach. Our strategy is to mobilize from the grassroots up, which we have done and are still doing, empowering young people in their communities to become agents of change.

“We are setting up local chapters and organizing community development projects that tackle real-world problems. We are using both traditional outreach and modern digital tools to ensure that our message of hope and action reaches every young Nigerian,” they declared.

End 

ReplyReply allForwardAdd reaction

An Elder Statesman and chieftain of the New Nigerian Peoples Party (NNPP), Buba Galadima, has opined that the independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) cannot conduct free and fair election under the administration of President Bola Tinubu.

Galadima accused the current administration of abandoning governance for politicking just two years after it came into power.

The NNPP chieftain stated this on Monday while fielding questions on Channels TV’s Politics Today programme

Galadima said that the INEC doesn’t have the ‘muscle and the guts’ to call politicians to order because people in government had already started politicking before others.

He said: “See, look at it, when INEC was INEC, when politicians start to heat the polity, they come out and warn them that they have not allowed politicking.

“Could it be worse? What is happening, the politicking that is going on now just two years into the life of this administration. Look at the politicking that is going on when INEC doesn’t even have the muscle and the guts to call politicians to order because people in government are the ones that started. So how do you expect a free and fair election under these people?

“Well, if they can’t stop politicians from get-crashing or jumping the gun, how do you think they will have the liver to conduct a free and fair election?

“You, in your own estimation, if they just can’t say, look, mister man, stop, it is not yet time for politicking, it’s time for governance.

“That is why some of us are keeping quiet. We are waiting for the daytime, and when we start, the world will know that we are here.”

End

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has finally declared Barrister Bright Emeka Ngene of the Labour Party (LP) the winner of the protracted rerun election in Enugu South Urban State Assembly constituency after four failed attempts.

In the initial March 2023 election, Ngene was declared the winner with 5,862 votes, defeating the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Sam Ngene, who scored 2,098 votes.

Bright Ngene was subsequently sworn into office.

However, the election was later nullified by the Enugu Election Petition Tribunal on the grounds that the number of canceled votes exceeded his winning margin.

The court ordered a rerun in eight polling units within Uwani.

Efforts to conduct the rerun were repeatedly thwarted by issues such as missing result sheets, violence, INEC logistical failures and other administrative challenges.

In June 2024, Ngene was convicted and sentenced to seven years in prison by a magistrate court on fraud charges related to a resurrected community matter from 2017. Many believed the conviction was politically orchestrated to prevent him from contesting the election.

On Saturday, August 16, 2025, the much-anticipated rerun election again ended in frustration as voting failed to take place for the fourth consecutive time, despite significant voter turnout at the designated Uwani Secondary School polling centre.

Although, INEC officials were present and appeared prepared, the process could not commence due to the absence of sensitive materials, including result sheets.

By 4:20 pm, with no voting activity in sight, the polling unit was shut down and electoral materials packed up.

PDP candidate, Sam Ngene blamed the delay on political interference, naming high-profile figures whom he accused of disrupting the process.

Responding, the Minister of Science and Technology, Chief Uche Nnaji defended his presence at the polling unit, stating:

“I’m here as the APC leader in Enugu State. I have every right to be present. The PDP knows it cannot win this election. If it’s not concluded today, we will remain here until it is.”

Meanwhile, the labour Party chairman in Enugu South LGA, Chinwuba Ngwu, expressed frustration with INEC, saying,

“We’ve been here since 7 am, but there’s been no accreditation or voting. INEC hasn’t communicated anything. It’s total silence.”

Recall that the court-ordered rerun was billed to take place in eight polling units covering 4,618 registered voters.

Taking a decisive step, the Independent National Electoral Commission on Tuesday declared Labour Party candidate, Barrister Bright Ngene the winner of the election, ending months of uncertainty.

End