Senator Ajibola Basiru, National Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), has urged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to fully deregister the African Democratic Congress (ADC). Speaking at the party's National Secretariat in Abuja alongside National Publicity Secretary Felix Morka, Basiru argued the ADC no longer merits registration due to poor electoral performance and internal conflicts. He cited the party's failure to win any seat in 17 bye-elections, the FCT Area Council polls, and concurrent state constituency elections in Rivers and Kano. "Even the quantum of votes they had in all the elections was nothing to write home about," Basiru said.
He maintained that INEC should have gone further than derecognising the leadership of former Senate President David Mark and instead removed the party entirely. The APC dismissed claims by an ADC faction that the Bola Tinubu administration is engineering a one-party state, attributing the ADC's troubles to a flawed leadership transition and a failed Court of Appeal challenge. Basiru described the party's defiance of court orders as reckless, insisting the president and INEC acted in line with judicial directives. He questioned the logic of ADC demands to remove INEC's chairman and commissioners, noting that presidential appointment of new officials would follow constitutional process. The APC advised the ADC to resolve its internal crisis rather than shift blame.
The APC is using INEC's technical compliance with a court order to push a broader narrative of opposition irrelevance. By highlighting the ADC's zero electoral gains, Basiru frames deregistration not as political suppression but as administrative cleanup. This sets a precedent where electoral marginalisation could be weaponised against any party with weak performance. For Nigerian voters, it signals that staying on the ballot may soon depend less on ideology and more on winning elections.
