Professor Udenta Udenta, a policy analyst and a founding figure of the Alliance for Democracy (AD), has strongly accused members of Nigeria’s pro-democracy movement of gradually deviating from the core ideals of the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO), news.ng reports.
Udenta spoke candidly about the current legal tussles facing the country’s main opposition parties, including the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), African Democratic Congress (ADC), and Labour Party (LP), which have almost paralysed their activities due to various court cases.
Prof. Udenta, who appeared on the Arise Television morning programme on Thursday, emphasized that individuals who claim to be carrying the NADECO mandate have abandoned the cause, citing a huge ideological disconnect.
He said, “This is a repudiation and a renunciation of everything NADECO stood for. If NADECO is in spirit and in character and in conduct, the president and his team will not be doing what they’re doing today.”
While the opposition parties are facing unprecedented challenges ahead of the 2027 general elections, Udenta stressed that the current political atmosphere in the country is what is needed to test the tenacity and grit of the parties.
“In politics, there’s a never-die spirit. You don’t retreat, you don’t surrender, you don’t give up. It’s just part of the facts available. I talked about lawfare, you just practicalize it.
“Almost seven, eight cases in law against a party, same with PDP and other parties too. But what do you do as a politician? Politicians, as I say, are very ghostly people; they move like shadows,” he stated.
While the ADC awaits judgment by the Supreme Court, Udenta opined that the ruling might change the trajectory of the country’s democracy. If the ruling negatively affects the parties, it will weaken the opposition.
“If you stop PDP and ADC today by the Supreme Court, we pray God they will not do so… then we can hold another conversation about the consequences thereof to the health of the democracy, survival of the nation,” he cautioned.
Examining President Tinubu’s style of leadership, he commented, saying, “the survival of the nation and legacy of Bola Tinubu as a president who has presided over a hybrid regime that’s a totalitarian in nature. It must make the state institutions and deploy forces across board to keep or get us to where we are today.”
