NDC: Judicial Vandalism Imperils Nigeria’s Threadbare Democracy

 By Olu Fasan

Last week, on June 26, Justice Isah Dashen of the Federal High Court, Lokoja, caused a huge judicio-political stir when he set aside his December 10, 2025, judgement ordering the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to register the Nigeria Democratic Congress, NDC, as a political party.

*Kwankwaso and Obi

The ruling effectively deregisters the party. Having thoroughly read the Certified True Copy, CTC, of the judgement, I believe the judge’s action amounted to judicial recklessness and vandalism, which risks truncating Nigeria’s fragile democracy.

If that sounds hyperbolic, then consider the wider implication of Justice Dashen’s ruling. The judge ordered that NDC’s substantive suit, which gave rise to the December 2025 ruling in its favour, “shall revert to the stage it occupied immediately before the delivery of the judgement set aside herein.” In other words, based on the extant ruling, there’s currently no court order on INEC to recognise NDC as a political party, and INEC can revert to its original position before December 10, 2025, when it refused to do so.

The Eternal Candidate: When Ambition Outstays Its Welcome

By Olufemi Aduwo 

There is no democratic or constitutional argument against Alhaji Atiku Abubakar’s right to seek the office of the President of Nigeria. In a republic governed by law rather than sentiment, political ambition does not expire with age and the ballot remains open to all who meet the formal requirements.

*Atiku 

Atiku may, if he so desires, contest for office even at the age of one hundred. That, however, is not the question confronting Nigeria as 2027 approaches. The real issue is not eligibility, but judgement; not entitlement, but wisdom; not ambition, but its consequences for national cohesion. Politics, as Edmund Burke reminded us, is a discipline of discernment rather than dogma. Rights may be absolute, but their exercise is always conditioned by circumstance. 

Ten Reasons Peter Obi Must Shun ADC Now!

By Steve Osuji (EXPRESSO Umb-rage)

ONE: Engagement Through Subterfuge: The new party emanating from a coalition of opposition politicians has already been tainted. The African Democratic Congress (ADC), has been completely taken over by the Atiku group. 

*Obi

Analysts had mocked ADC as ATIKU DEMOCRATIC CONGRESS, and truly, the situation in the party today has proved them perspicacious. 

A few days ago, Atiku Abubakar, erstwhile vice president of Nigeria and one of the arrowhead of ADC announced that he had formalised his membership of the party. A few others followed suit. 

Bola Tinubu’s First Major Political Blunder

 By Emmanuel Aziken

Just a week ago, President Bola Tinubu was hailed and nailed on this page over his score in his first two years in office as assessed by the 2023 Social Democratic Party, SDP, presidential candidate, Adewole Adebayo.

*Tinubu

Adebayo had in his assessment of the two years spent by Tinubu in power scored him an F9 in governance and an A1 in politics.

The reasons for the scores were robustly marshaled. On one side he was ‘hailed’ for becoming the first chief executive in the country to reduce the totality of the opposition into insignificance. On the other hand, he was scorched for the foibles that have forced Nigerians into their worst living condition in generations.