Unless Miracle Happens, INEC Won’t Register ADA, Says Tinubu’s Ex-Aide Baba-Ahmed

A former political adviser to President Bola Tinubu in the office of the Vice President, and prominent northern elder, Dr. Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, has expressed serious doubts over the likelihood of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) approving the registration of the newly proposed political party, the All Democratic Alliance (ADA).

Baba-Ahmed made the remarks during an appearance on Arise News Channel’s ‘The Morning Show’ on Monday, which was monitored by our Correspondent. He warned that unless a “miracle” happens, the ADA’s application may be dead on arrival.

“Unless a miracle happens, they [ADA] forget that there are a huge number of applications before INEC, and INEC has not registered any party for a long time,” Baba-Ahmed said.

He emphasised that the electoral body must be careful not to appear biased, especially considering the prominent political figures backing the ADA.

“I do not know how it will look if INEC now singles out an application that has come because it has at the bottom of it names of prominent politicians and says, ‘Look, we have to prioritise this.’ INEC will put itself in a very difficult situation, and Nigerians will not be impressed.”

ADA was being proposed as a new political front by the Nigerian National Coalition Group (NNCG), a growing anti-Tinubu coalition that reportely includes notable political heavyweights such as former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, ex-Rivers State governor Rotimi Amaechi, former Kaduna State governor Nasir El-Rufai, and Dr. Umar Ardo, convener of the League of Northern Democrats.

After months of internal deliberation, the NNCG on June 19, 2025, formally applied to INEC to register ADA as a political party. The application, stamped received by INEC on June 20, was signed by the association’s Protem National Chairman, Chief Akin A. Ricketts.

The letter read in part, “We respectfully write to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, requesting the registration of our association, the All Democratic Alliance, ADA, as a political party… The name of the party shall be All Democratic Alliance with ADA as our acronym and ‘Justice for All’ as our slogan.”

The movement towards forming a new party emerged after internal wranglings and trust deficits made the idea of joining existing political parties like the African Democratic Congress (ADC) and Social Democratic Party (SDP) unattractive to the coalition. Concerns were also raised over factional crises and litigations plaguing the existing platforms.

Baba-Ahmed, while weighing in on the development, acknowledged the coalition’s intent to create a neutral platform where all players feel like “shareholders,” not “tenants.” However, he warned that the political and legal technicalities involved in forming a new party could prove insurmountable.

“The technical element of creating a new party just to simply make a level playing field for everyone to feel comfortable, ‘we are not going into another party where we have to comply with certain requirements we are not comfortable with, we are not going to somebody’s party where we will be treated as tenants rather than shareholders’, that is going to be very difficult and challenging.”

Baba-Ahmed suggested that if INEC truly feels the need to approve new parties, it must do so in bulk to avoid the appearance of partiality.

“INEC, of course, has other options. If they come under pressure and feel, ‘Look, we need to register this party,’ for whatever reason, they can register about 20 parties that will include the new one with the big guys. They cannot cherry-pick. They have to worry about the law regarding the registration of parties,” Baba-Ahmed stated.