On Monday, 30/03/2026, former Presidential Candidate of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), and former governor of Kano State, Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso, officially joined the African Democratic Congress (ADC) after picking up his membership card.
The defection of Senator Kwankwaso to the ADC marks one of the latest high-profile political alignments in the build up to the 2027 General elections. The development also means that the ADC now boasts of having all three of the major challengers to President Tinubu in the 2023 Presidential election.
Senator Kwankwaso joins Former Vice President and serial contestant for the Presidency, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, and former presidential candidate of Labour Party, Mr. Peter Obi, in the ADC. The sole purpose of the alignment being the unseating of APC’s President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in 2027.
Despite boasting of 31 Governors in his Party, the APC, President Tinubu will nonetheless be very concerned with the recent addition of Kwankwaso to the ranks of the ADC. The significance of the addition is that ADC now has the three major opponents to Tinubu in the last election who scored a combined 14,582,740 votes as against his 8,794,726 votes. The recent development is sure to force the president back to the drawing board.
Geopolitically, the President may retain a strong showing in the South West region as a son of the land. Having been stunned by Obi’s victory in Lagos in the last election, there is certainty that the Presidents may have learnt from the failure and put mechanisms in place to prevent such from occurring in 2027.
However, the north, especially the north west and north east regions of Nigeria remain very unsure for Tinubu. The perceived political witch-hunt of high profile figures like Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna and Abubakar Malami SAN of Kebbi State does nothing to help his case either.
Down the middle is the North Central region riddled by insecurity for the most part. It will be impossible for Tinubu to perform as well as he did there in the last election.
The South South and South East regions do not show any much promise either. While the South East may overwhelmingly go against the President, especially if Peter Obi features on the ballot, the South South may emerge as a split, although it is too early to tell.
On a whole, the 2027 general election will be a referendum on the President’s performance in the economy, security and infrastructural development.