The New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) says it will adopt the African Democratic Congress (ADC) presidential candidate as its own in a bid to unseat the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2027.
Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar and ex-Anambra State governor Peter Obi—who ran the 2023 race on the Labour Party ticket—are seen as the two front-runners for the ADC nomination.
The ADC has already pulled in heavyweights from the APC fold: ex-ministers Rotimi Amaechi, Nasir El-Rufai and Abubakar Malami, plus several top aides who served under the late President Muhammadu Buhari.
NNPP leaders are now jumping ship en masse. Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, until recently the party’s national leader, resigned on Sunday and is expected to formalise his move to the ADC today in Kano. A string of former deputy governors, commissioners and Kwankwasiyya loyalists will follow him across.
National Publicity Secretary Ladipo Johnson told Channels TV on Monday that the NNPP “will continue to contest elections,” but at the presidential level “we will be in alignment with the ADC.” Down-ballot races will still feature NNPP candidates, he added.
Johnson said opposition figures agreed “it will best serve their purposes—and those of Nigerians—to come together under one platform as an alternative for 2027.”
Kwankwaso’s exit follows weeks of talks with ADC chiefs, Labour’s Peter Obi, ex-Osun governor and ADC national secretary Rauf Aregbesola, Oyo governor Seyi Makinde and Bayelsa West senator Seriake Dickson. His resignation statement cited the need for “strategic political realignment.”
