With the tenure of INEC Chairman Prof. Mahmood Yakubu set to end in December, youths of the opposition African Democratic Congress (ADC) have issued a warning to President Bola Tinubu, declaring that no attempt to manipulate the choice of his successor will stop them from victory in 2027.
Speaking in Abuja on Tuesday under the aegis of the African Democratic Youth Congress (ADYC), the youths vowed to resist any move by the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to subvert the will of the people, even if Tinubu appoints his spokesman, Bayo Onanuga, as INEC chairman.
“Politics is about numbers. They can bring as much money they have but we are going to beat them silly 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 chose 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,” they declared.
On the recent bye-elections, ADYC Director General Murtala Haliru Dantoro dismissed them as a sham.
“It is important that people know that vote buying is criminal. What happened in my state, Niger, was heartbreaking. To be in a country whereby we cannot make decisions. Our decisions are baseless. We will love to see leaders who will allow our people decide freely during elections. There is no greatness in forcing yourself on the people.
“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,” he said.
The youths stressed that they are determined to change Nigeria’s political landscape through grassroots mobilisation and active participation in governance.
“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.
“Despite the difficulties we are facing, we have to rise and be part of our country’s electoral system. Let us join the Coalition party ADC, let’s vote right. We must understand that vote buying is not merely a transaction; it is a betrayal of our collective future,” Dantoro said.
For her part, National Coordinator Mrs. Ruqayya Lamido Dodo declared that Nigerian youths are tired of empty promises.
“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 ADC youths added that their movement is spreading across all states, LGAs, 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.
