LEONARD ONOTAKEVWE urges the party to put its house in sequence
There is something increasingly difficult to ignore in the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC). On the surface, the party has what appears to be a formidable presidential ticket in Peter Obi and Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso. It has the Obidient movement, the Kwankwasiyya movement and the institutional organization of the NDC. It has, at least in theory, the ingredients of a powerful opposition coalition.
He has said, in substance, that he is NDC and not an Obidient or a Kwankwasiyya. A political party is entitled to declare its institutional authority, just as a assist movement is entitled to maintain its identity.
Dickson subsequently made his opinion on political identity even clearer. There is nothing inherently contradictory regarding that opinion.
The Obi-Kwankwaso Movement, yet, did not receive that interpretation.
The movement presented the council as a mobilisation manner for the Obi-Kwankwaso ticket. The NDC help rejected it, saying it had not emanated from the party and should consequently be disregarded. It insisted that it was an free political organisation alongside its own management, arrangement and internal processes, during the time that acknowledging the supremacy of the party during its constitutional sphere. The party added warned that merely its command could create up and proclaim its presidential campaign council and cautioned assist groups against creating structures that could be interpreted as parallel party organs. Thankfully, Peter Obi has clarified the outlook, that the movement is subordinate to the party.
Kwankwaso brings his own political past, geographical base and organizational identity. The same applies to Kwankwasiyya.
And when two structures are sending varied signals, voters can become confused around which one represents the genuine campaign. The value of his presence on the ticket partly lies in the added constituency he represents.
The APC has been methodically proceeding through means of its electoral preparations, although the ADC has moreover formally submitted its presidential and vice-presidential candidates to INEC and continued its organizational preparations. The NDC, meanwhile, has spent remarkable audience energy dealing using questions of internal framework and authority.
A political party entering a presidential election is expected to project unity, clarity of command and strategic coherence. When the people instead sees senior party figures publicly clarifying who is doing whom a favour, support groups being warned concerning party authority and a presidential campaign council being publicly disowned, the quick perception can be one of internal uncertainty. But perception has consequences.
Whether that perception is completely correct is another topic.
If Obidients perceive the NDC as attempting to subordinate their movement completely, some may feel alienated. If both perceptions harden, the consequence could be duplication, competing chains of command and conflicting community messages.
If the NDC perceives the Obidient and Kwankwasiyya structures as attempting to operate above the party, the instruction may resist them.
The concern is to generate a situation in which party organization and movement energy fund rather than compete including one another. But Obi’s supporters moreover have a lawful political background of their own. The Obidient movement was not created by the NDC and so was Kwankwasiyya. The party has useful reasons to insist on institutional discipline.
What is observable is that the NDC appears as albeit its primary political forces are still negotiating the terms of their marriage and finding integration difficult although the electoral contest is already fully underway. Both existed in advance of the provide political design and developed their own networks, identities and loyal supporters.
It is additionally regarding what humans believe is happening. In politics, perception matters a lot.
Politics is not merely on what is happening. That is where the display scenario could become problematic for the NDC.
The NDC command believes that a structured presidential campaign arrangement must come from the party. Free from such an agreement, every appointment, rally, declaration or mobilisation exercise could become another promising flashpoint.
The OK Movement explicitly believes it has the organisational capacity to mobilise for the presidential ticket. Both positions can coexist simply if there is an agreed framework.
But the extremely point that such consultations stay required illustrates the stable nature of their political integration.
That does not mean the party is inactive. Indeed, there have been consultations between Obi, Kwankwaso, Dickson and other senior figures aimed at producing a coordinated campaign framework in an endless method.
How will the varied regions of Nigeria advantage? How will jobs be created?
What is the announcement? What is the scheme for the economy? What is the outline for insecurity? What does the ticket stand for? How will the expense of living be addressed? And, above all, can the humans behind the ticket demonstrate that they can labor together?
The timing makes the topic even additional disturbing. Obi has already flagged off his presidential campaign and presented his broad political remark to Nigerians in a design that has drawn some criticisms. The query is no longer whether the NDC has a candidate and a running mate, it does.
The presidential election is scheduled for 16 January 2027, whereas the approved campaign period has already commenced.
He additionally reminded his viewers that he could have been the party’s presidential candidate himself.
Domestic Director of the NDC, Senator Seriake Dickson, has publicly insisted that the party should not be portrayed as the beneficiary of a favour from Peter Obi or any other politician. In June, responding to criticism from some Obi supporters, Dickson declared that nobody was doing the NDC a favour by joining it; rather, he said, the NDC was doing politicians a favour by providing its platform.
Now that Obi is contesting under the NDC, the counter is: will the rigid platform in the party be able to transform that movement energy into the official structures of a political party lacking extinguishing the extremely enthusiasm that made the movement crucial?
And for Obi, this is where the matter becomes notably essential. Peter Obi’s political strength is inseparable from the enthusiasm of the movement close to him.
It is a stark warning sign that the NDC is still task in progress.
The rejection of the 59-person council should therefore not be treated merely as another political disagreement.
The electorate is remote to be interested in the internal constitutional arguments of the NDC. Who is prominent?
Voters will be looking for answers.
That would be damaging not given that disagreement is inherently poor, but given that an election campaign requires the ability to interpret decisions promptly into coordinated measure.
The quarrel was not necessarily amid Obi and Dickson or amid Kwankwaso and Dickson. It is fundamentally a dispute over political architecture.
It is instructive to observe that campaigns for the January 16, 2026 presidential election formally began on August 16. Who appoints campaign officials? Who mobilises the voters? Who speaks for the presidential ticket? Who determines the campaign observe? Who commands the grassroots structures? And, conceivably most importantly, will the Obidient and Kwankwasiyya constituencies see themselves as supporters of an NDC presidential candidate or as members of a broader political movement that happens to be contesting throughout the NDC?
And increasingly, the disagreement is no longer entirely underground.
That query may sound organizational. In an election as consequential as the 2027 presidential contest, still, organizational questions can promptly become political questions. Humans have now taken observe of it.
Can the NDC rapidly alter the prominent political enthusiasm approximately Obi and Kwankwaso into one disciplined, coordinated and recognizable nationwide campaign machine ahead of the 2027 election? This is where comparisons using other political parties inevitably arise.
The query is alongside the current rumbling.
It is the query of who truly controls the political machinery of the NDC — the party itself or the movements and political structures that Obi and Kwankwaso brought into it?
Yet beneath that surface, a palpable uncomfortable undercurrent appears to be unraveling, making the NDC a party of specific consideration.
That collision became notably transparent in the controversy over the 59-participant presidential campaign council unveiled by the Obi-Kwankwaso Movement.
The matter begins when the two positions appear to collide.
But if the disagreements go on to spill into people perspective, they could assemble an impression of a coalition that has not yet fully become a party.
Excluding being told, the NDC’s fault lines are too glaring for all to see.
Onotakevwe Jnr, a political and current affairs analyst, writes from Abuja, FCT
Source: THE UNDERCURRENT AT NDC
