Elder statesman and political ally of President Bola Tinubu, Kashim Ibrahim-Imam, has said that the emergence of t opposition coalition under the platform of African Democratic Congress (ADC) could be the single most consequential act to safeguard Nigeria’s fragile democracy ahead of the 2027 general election.
In a statement titled “The Simple Bravery That Will Save Nigeria’s Democracy”, the seasoned politician warned that the country was teetering dangerously close to becoming a one-party state, and credited the ADC for resisting what he described as the political suffocation of dissenting voices under the Tinubu administration.
“The ADC may not be revolutionary,” Ibrahim-Imam wrote, “but their refusal to vanish from the 2027 ballot could be the most consequential act of national courage since Nigeria’s return to democracy.”
Describing the current political landscape as one where “the powerful silence dissent,” the former Presidential Liaison Officer in the National Assembly emphasised that in such a climate, “every act of resistance, as witnessed with the ADC Coalition, becomes an act of patriotism.”
Ibrahim-Imam, who has been a vocal advocate for national unity and democratic values, condemned what he called the growing centralization of power around President Tinubu, a trend he says began in Lagos and is now being scaled up nationally.
“Before now, we were already treading on the dangerous path of President Tinubu’s legacy in Lagos, where he presided over two decades of political sterilization, budget secrecy, and democratic suffocation,” he said. “It is unfortunate that once vibrant governors were almost silenced to the consternation of Nigerians. Even members of the National Assembly who ought to stand on their feet were turned into a choir of yes-men.”
He accused the ruling party of infiltrating the opposition and aligning critical state institutions not with the constitution, but with “President Tinubu’s personal ambition.”
“Even before seeking a second term in office, he already enjoyed unquestioned, undisputed, uninterrupted control of the state. This is not a democracy under construction. It’s a palace under siege,” he warned.
Despite acknowledging that the ADC is not a perfect vehicle, “not new, not young, and not without baggage,” Ibrahim-Imam stressed that their defiance has kept the democratic space from collapsing entirely.
“They are not poster children for change,” he said. “But they are the ones who didn’t step aside. And sometimes, that is the only difference between a nation that lives and one that loses itself.”
According to him, the ADC’s presence on the 2027 ballot achieves three vital goals: breaking the illusion of inevitability around Tinubu’s reign, preserving political competition, and offering Nigerians “one more shot at reclaiming the future.”
“Democracy does not always need angels,” he wrote. “Sometimes it just needs survivors who won’t quit.”
Issuing a direct call to the nation’s middle class, Ibrahim-Imam urged professionals, students, and members of the diaspora to awaken from political apathy and rally behind the principle of pluralism, if not behind the ADC itself.
“This is a call to Nigeria’s thinkers, builders, and believers,” he wrote, “the engineers, doctors, and entrepreneurs exhausted by bad governance. The students and graduates whose brilliance is wasted in joblessness. The diaspora citizens looking back home with dread and disbelief.”
He concluded with a stark warning: “If Tinubu succeeds in erasing choice, your country disappears next. If there’s no one left to vote for, what will be left to live in?”
“This is not a victory for the ADC. This is a victory for the idea that our democracy still breathes. And in 2027, that breath may be the only thing standing between us and a political tombstone,” Kashim Imam stated.
