With the tenure of INEC Chairman Prof. Mahmood Yakubu ending in December, youths of the opposition African Democratic Congress (ADC) have warned President Bola Tinubu not to manipulate the process of appointing a new electoral umpire.
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 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 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.
