In this exclusive interview with Pinnacle Daily, the African Democratic Congress (ADC) spokesperson, Bolaji Abdullahi, speaks on the party’s strategy for the 2027 general elections, the opposition coalition, fuel subsidy, insecurity, job creation, voter apathy and vote buying. He explains why the ADC is making the cost of living the centrepiece of its campaign and why he believes four months is enough time to reach Nigerian voters.
Pinnacle Daily: How effective has the Nigerian opposition been, and what will the ADC do differently in the 2027 election?
Abdullahi: ADC is very clear that this election is about one thing: the cost of living for Nigerians. Nothing else.
How much does it take for Nigerians to stay alive and well? Whether it is security, the inability to find jobs, the cost of fuel, food or transportation, for ADC, it is all about making life affordable for Nigerians.
That is the message, and we believe this is what is most important to Nigerians.
All other things about who is this or who is that are not our business. We are not going to get involved in that. We are going to focus on one thing that concerns Nigerians, and that is the cost of living.
Pinnacle Daily: How can this be achieved, particularly given the economic challenges Nigerians are facing? Do you believe the policies being proposed by the ADC can realistically be implemented?
Abdullahi: Of course it is achievable. And let me tell you something that I am probably saying for the first time.
When a nation is at war and another country is invading your country, you do whatever it takes to protect your citizens. You do not worry about the cost. Your priority is how to protect your citizens.
That is what Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and the ADC are saying: Nigerians have been traumatised in the last three years. Nigerians are desperately poor, too poor to be left without subsidy. Nigerians cannot afford not to be subsidised.
When you have 135 million of your people living below the absolute poverty line, they can definitely not survive in an atmosphere where petrol sells for N1,570 per litre.
What Alhaji Atiku Abubakar is saying is that if we are able to subsidise production, we should subsidise production in a way that will bring down the cost of fuel at the pump.
When you subsidise production for local refiners, it brings down the cost of producing a litre of petrol, which in turn reflects at the pump.
When you bring down the cost of petrol, it has a knock-on effect on almost everything else, including food, because the cost of transportation also determines the price of commodities.
This is the point we are making. For us in the ADC, it is all about the cost of living.
Pinnacle Daily: What are the major priorities of the ADC and the Atiku campaign?
Abdullahi: The three things we have identified are actually the three cardinal objectives of the ADC and the Atiku campaign.
The first is the cost of living; the second is insecurity, and the third is job opportunities.
What we are seeing is a situation where the Nigerian economy is growing but leaving the majority of Nigerians behind and not creating enough jobs.
Creating jobs is also tied to the kind of higher education or post-secondary education that we have.
At the moment, our higher education system is not designed to deliver skills that are actually related to sectors that create jobs.
So creating jobs has to do with bringing industry and higher education together. That is part of the strategy of our prescription.
A lot of these details will come out in the coming days.
But the most important thing we need to emphasise at this stage is that the three cardinal objectives of the African Democratic Congress are reducing the cost of living, providing security and creating jobs, especially for young people.
Pinnacle Daily: You have talked about the opposition and the need for a broader coalition. Do you believe the opposition can present one candidate against the APC in 2027?
Abdullahi: We have always maintained that the 2027 election is going to be between the Nigerian people and the APC.
It is the Nigerian people versus the APC.
That is why, when we bring these issues to the fore, we are not doing so out of weakness or fear. We are only putting them on notice and making the record very clear about who the aggressors are.
We do not think that, in a general election, all the army and all the police in the world can stop people who are determined to free themselves from the situation that the APC has thrown them into.
Pinnacle Daily: But some of those attempts have failed in recent months. Do you still believe the opposition can achieve a single-candidate arrangement and give Nigerians one person to vote for?
Abdullahi: We have always said that. Do not forget that the ADC itself is a product of a coalition, and that coalition is still intact.
We are talking about broadening the coalition. That is what we mean — broadening the coalition in a way that delivers one opposition political candidate.
If that happened, if we were able to do that, then maybe it would make our work easier.
But we are saying that failure to do that does not make it impossible.
We are the only party today that is talking about bringing back subsidy. We believe that bringing back subsidy is the only pathway to relieve the suffering that Nigerians are going through.
The Federal Government of the APC will tell you that, by October 1, it will reduce the cost of transportation.
It is a lie. They cannot do it. If they could do it, they would have done it all along.
It is just political talk. They are desperate. They are under pressure.
They tell us there is no alternative to the removal of subsidy. ADC is saying there is an alternative to the removal of subsidy, and that we are going to make it happen.
We cannot continue like this as a people when, within three years, 63 per cent of Nigerians are falling into absolute poverty.
No government that is worthy of that name should allow that to happen.
Pinnacle Daily: INEC has officially opened the window for political parties to campaign. Yet we have not seen extensive campaign posters, jingles and other activities from many opposition parties. With about four months to the election, do you think there is still enough time to convince Nigerians?
Abdullahi: In political terms, believe me, four months is a long time.
That is why we say that when INEC talks about six months, you have to look at the period when the campaign is open.
No party, even the ruling party, is doing much at this stage.
Election campaign is a marathon, not a long-distance race. If you run a campaign for six months, you will burn out before the election.
If you do not burn out financially, you will burn out physically.
Our strategy for this campaign is going to be different. It is not going to be like any other campaign you have seen before.
Before now, you used to travel by road from one place to another. There are no roads in Nigeria anymore, thanks to the APC.
Even if you travel by road, you are not sure you will arrive because of bandits and criminals.
So, there has to be an alternative strategy for this campaign.
The time that is left is sufficient to do the kind of campaign that we want to do.
In any case, are we going to tell Nigerians what they do not already know?
If you have entered a filling station to buy fuel today, do you need anybody to tell you that fuel is expensive?
If you have entered a vehicle or used public transportation today, do you need anybody to tell you that transportation is expensive or that food is expensive?
We are only going to tell Nigerians the reason for them to choose. They already know the situation.
Pinnacle Daily: We saw what happened in the 2023 election, including allegations of vote buying. Do you think vote buying will continue in 2027, and what can Nigerians do differently? There is also the issue of voter apathy.
Abdullahi: I am very sure vote buying will stop now.
I mean, vote buying will become bigger in 2027. Vote buying is not likely to stop at any time. It has always been there.
But you have seen the limits of vote buying in the case of off-cycle elections as well as the Osun governorship election. We cannot stop it at any time, but we have seen its limits.
It is easy to bring all the money you have to attack a state and still lose, by the way.
When you now need to do that for the entire country, it becomes a different dynamic entirely.
We cannot use all these off-cycle elections to judge the general election. The general election operates by its own different logic.
So, will they bring out money to try to buy voters? Of course, they will.
But we believe that it depends on their appeal, what they are able to tell the people and their ability to convince them.
There are some places now. A friend of mine told me that he went to Katsina wearing a Yoruba cap, and they had to warn him to remove it.
There is a place we cannot go now to campaign for President Mubarak.
He has divided this country more than at any other time in the history of Nigeria.
Nigerians know that. Nigerians know that 2027 provides them with an opportunity to take their country back.
Pinnacle Daily: Finally, do you believe the ADC can win the 2027 election?
Abdullahi: Absolutely. We have no doubt about it.
We believe that we will win this election. We have no doubt about it.
Rafiyat Sadiq is a political, justice, and human rights reporter with Pinnacle Daily, known for fearless reporting and impactful storytelling. At Pinnacle Daily, she brings clarity and depth to issues shaping governance, democracy, and the protection of citizens’ rights.