Opposition leaders under the African Democratic Congress (ADC) coalition have launched an intensive regional mobilization campaign as part of their strategy to challenge the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in the 2027 elections.
Key coalition figures have returned to their home bases to galvanize support, with LEADERSHIP Sunday confirming that interim national chairman Senator David Mark and national secretary Rauf Aregbesola have commenced outreach activities in Benue and Osun states, respectively.
The coalition has adopted a zonal coordination structure, with former Vice President Atiku Abubakar assigned to oversee the North East zone, David Mark leading the North Central zone, and former Kaduna Governor Nasir El-Rufai heading the North West zone. In the South, former Anambra Governor Peter Obi will coordinate the Southeast zone, while Aregbesola manages both the South-South and South-West zones.
Senator Mark, currently in Benue State for his granddaughter’s wedding, is expected to engage with regional leaders and movement sympathisers. Meanwhile, Aregbesola received an enthusiastic reception from loyalists upon his arrival in Lagos following the party’s official unveiling in Abuja.
Atiku has already begun stakeholder consultations, meeting with ADC leaders from Gombe State, led by former minister Senator Idris Abdullahi, during a late Friday session in Abuja.
The mobilization drive has been given a two-week timeline, according to ADC’s national publicity secretary, Malam Bolaji Abdullahi. “Our members and leaders have returned to the regions to galvanize the people, mobilize them, and talk to the people. Our strengths are in the people, not in guns or thugs,” he explained.
“After talking to them, they will return to Abuja in two weeks’ time. It is after that we will sit down, analyse their reports and other things will follow,” Abdullahi added.
Other prominent figures active in regional mobilisation include former Police Affairs Minister Maina Waziri in Yobe State and former Imo Governor Emeka Ihedioha.
The ADC’s emergence has energised Nigeria’s opposition landscape, particularly as the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Labour Party grapple with internal leadership crises. The coalition brings together political heavyweights who finished second and third in the previous presidential election, including Atiku and Obi, alongside other significant figures such as former Rivers Governor Rotimi Amaechi, Senator Dino Melaye, and former Osun Governor Rauf Aregbesola.
The movement aims to replicate the successful 2013 opposition merger that created the APC and enabled it to defeat the then-ruling PDP in 2015. Despite dismissals from ruling party figures and some political observers who question the coalition’s capacity to unseat President Bola Tinubu, Senator Mark remains confident in the platform’s mission to “rescue the country from the APC government.”
The grassroots mobilisation represents the coalition’s first major test of its organisational capacity and public appeal ahead of the 2027 electoral contest.
