RismadarVoice Reporters, May 26, 2026
With party primaries underway this week, Nigeria’s major opposition parties are presenting a fractured front in their bid to unseat President Bola Tinubu ahead of the 2027 general elections — undermined by internal power struggles that have produced rival candidates and duelling claims of legitimacy within the same parties.
The Social Democratic Party, the Peoples Democratic Party, and the African Democratic Congress are all caught in bitter factional disputes, each producing multiple aspirants from competing wings a development that threatens to scatter the opposition vote before the campaign even begins in earnest.
The most closely watched contest on Monday was the ADC presidential primary, conducted simultaneously across the party’s 8,809 wards nationwide using the open Option A4 voting method. Three candidates contested: former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, former Rivers State governor and ex-transport minister Rotimi Amaechi, and businessman Mohammed Hayatu-Deen.
Atiku, widely considered the frontrunner, cast his vote at Ajiya Ward in Jimeta, Yola, and drew endorsements from ADC state chapters including Niger, Sokoto, and Bauchi during the exercise. Amaechi voted at his ward in Ubima, Ikwerre Local Government Area of Rivers State. Results were yet to be announced at press time, with the collation committee chaired by former Abia APC governorship candidate Chief Ikechi Emenike expected to release the outcome on Tuesday.
Complicating matters, a rival faction loyal to the party’s 2023 presidential candidate Dumebi Kachikwu held separate congresses on Sunday and declared Kachikwu the ADC’s standard bearer for 2027. The David Mark-led ADC leadership the faction recognised on INEC’s official website dismissed the move outright, noting that the Supreme Court had already affirmed its authority and that the rival group had not followed any of the legally required processes for conducting party congresses.
“This matter went up to the Supreme Court, the highest court in the land. It affirmed that there is only one leadership under former Senate President David Mark and former Governor Rauf Aregbesola,” said the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Bolaji Abdullahi.
The ADC also used the occasion to take a pointed dig at the ruling APC, accusing it of inflating membership and vote figures, and declaring that its own primary would be conducted with arithmetical honesty. “We will not jump from 3 to 30 or from 500 to 1,000,” Emenike said pointedly.
The main opposition PDP is navigating an equally turbulent internal crisis. The Kabiru Turaki-led National Working Committee has named former President Goodluck Jonathan as its sole presidential aspirant, with primaries scheduled for May 28. The rival Wike-backed PDP faction, meanwhile, is backing Senator Sandy Onor.
Also in the frame is outgoing Oyo State Governor Seyi Makinde, who is pursuing a joint platform between the PDP and the Alliance Peoples Movement. Both PDP factions claim vindication from a recent Supreme Court ruling on the party’s leadership and both have sold nomination forms to aspirants, each insisting it is the authentic party. Whichever faction loses will face serious damage to its presidential ambitions.
The SDP is similarly divided, producing two presidential candidates from competing wings: Prince Adewolu Adebayo, fielded by the Prof. Sadiq Gombe-led National Working Committee, and Abimbola Atanda from the Shehu Gabam camp.
Against this backdrop of opposition disarray, two parties have managed to maintain unity. The Nigeria Democratic Congress has former Anambra governor and 2023 Labour Party presidential candidate Peter Obi as its sole aspirant, with primaries fixed for May 29. Accord is similarly settled behind former presidential candidate and businessman Dr Gbenga Olawepo-Hashim.
The Labour Party will also hold its presidential primary on May 29, choosing between former Obidient Movement National Treasurer Dr Peter Agada of Benue State and 35-year-old Ebonyi businessman Samuel Nwigwe. The Peoples Redemption Party, meanwhile, was expected to conclude its own primary on Tuesday, with former Cross River governor Donald Duke considered the favourite over economist Dr Nnaoke Ufere and Yakubu Kingsley of Edo State.
With primaries fragmenting rather than consolidating the opposition, the path to mounting a credible unified challenge against Tinubu’s APC in 2027 looks considerably steeper than many opposition supporters had hoped.
