APC Slams Broken Opposition, Claims Internal Feuds and Legal Tangles Leave Obi and Atiku Unready for 2027 Polls

The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has launched a stinging attack on the nation’s primary opposition camps, declaring that their ongoing legal wars, leadership chaos, and party splits prove they are completely unready to challenge President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in the 2027 general elections.

The APC’s blunt assessment comes as the opposition space experiences an unprecedented structural crisis. The main challengers are currently split into two fragile camps: the newly minted Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC)—which recently adopted Peter Obi and Rabiu Kwankwaso—and the deeply fractured African Democratic Congress (ADC), which is backing former Vice President Atiku Abubakar’s latest presidential bid.

However, instead of building a robust grassroots campaign message to counter the ruling party’s policies, both opposition platforms have become heavily bogged down in courtrooms and internal power struggles. The NDC is facing a massive existential hurdle after a Federal High Court in Lokoja issued a shock ruling that nullified its formal registration as a political party. While NDC leadership has scrambled to appeal the judgment and calm its anxious support base, the ruling has left the party’s legal eligibility under the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) framework under a dark cloud of uncertainty.

The situation is arguably worse within the ADC. The party has been hit by a severe exodus of its legislative strength, losing 17 members of the House of Representatives and prominent senators like Victor Umeh, who defected to the NDC. To add to its woes, a bitter factional dispute over who controls the party’s national structure has escalated all the way to the Supreme Court. This internal civil war has produced two rival presidential candidates, leaving Atiku Abubakar’s standard-bearer status completely hostage to an impending judicial ruling.

APC strategists are capitalizing on this widespread disarray, pointing out that a fragmented opposition field invariably plays right into the hands of the ruling party. In the previous general election, split opposition votes allowed the APC to secure victory with 37 percent of the ballot. With the top opposition figures failing to maintain a disciplined, unified coalition, the ruling party insists that the 2027 race is rapidly shaping up to be a straightforward cruise for the incumbency.

“The opposition in Nigeria has shown time and again that they prioritize elite power grabs over coherent national governance,” an APC communications coordinator noted during a policy brief. “They are spending all their energy fighting themselves in courts, filing appeals over nullified registrations, and tearing their own platforms apart. If you cannot manage a simple political party structure or keep your own lawmakers from defecting, how can you claim readiness to govern a complex nation like Nigeria? They are simply not ready for the polls.”

In response to the APC’s mocking critique, lawmakers from the NDC have pushed back, accusing the ruling party of using state resources and coordinated judicial pressure to intentionally de-register and weaken opposition platforms before campaigning even begins. They maintain that the APC is secretly terrified of the popular appeal of the Obi-Kwankwaso ticket and is doing everything possible to keep them off the ballot.

Nevertheless, with the legal showdowns at the Supreme Court and appellate benches fast approaching, political analysts agree that the opposition is running out of time. Unless the ADC can resolve its parallel candidate nightmare and the NDC can successfully overturn its de-registration ruling, the APC’s claims might become a self-fulfilling prophecy, leaving the field wide open for a resounding ruling-party victory.