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"Follow Us as We Followed You": Galadima Gives Atiku Public Ultimatum to Join NDC or Face Blame, as Party Zones Ticket to South and PDP BoT Appoints Turaki to Fill Leadership Vacuum
A senior figure in the Nigeria Democratic Congress, Buba Galadima, has issued a blunt public ultimatum to former Vice President Atiku Abubakar: join the NDC immediately, or bear the blame for whatever happens to the opposition in 2027. Speaking on Channels Television's Politics Today on Monday, Galadima — a close ally of former Kano Governor Rabiu Kwankwaso — framed the invitation as both a plea and a warning, arguing that all the major opposition figures have now consolidated in the NDC and that Atiku's continued presence in the crisis‑ridden ADC threatens to scuttle the coalition's chances against the ruling All Progressives Congress. "The truth of the matter is that Peter Obi and Kwankwaso migrated into the ADC; they brought unity of opposition to unseat Tinubu. Unfortunately, there are insinuations that the APC, the government and, by extension, Tinubu used the courts to unseat the opposition," Galadima said. "This is why I'm making this call on former vice president Atiku Abubakar to follow us as we followed him into the ADC, such that there will be a unity of opposition to unseat this government, and if he refuses, Atiku will be held responsible."
Galadima warned that remaining outside the NDC could have direct consequences for Atiku's political ambitions. "If he refuses to do that, then he has now scuttled the unity of the opposition to unseat this government because he cannot continue to be in the ADC, or else he has agreed now to forfeit his right to contest in the 2027 election," he said. He stressed that "the reality is that all the political gladiators are now in the NDC, and if anybody is outside, like Kwankwaso was outside and persuaded into the ADC, then we're also pleading with Atiku to come into the NDC so that we can consolidate again and remove the incumbent government."
NDC Zones Ticket to South, Confirms Primaries Over Consensus
In the same interview, Galadima confirmed that the NDC has taken a definitive position on zoning: the party's 2027 presidential ticket will go to the southern region. "We have zoned the party's presidential candidature to the south. No missing votes. We've zoned it to the south," he declared, ruling out any immediate plan to impose a consensus candidate and insisting that the party would allow the process to play out through internal democratic contest. The NDC will submit its membership register to INEC either on the 5th or 6th of this month. Once that is done, Galadima said, "we are good to go." The zoning decision is a direct rebuke to the ADC's studied neutrality on the same question — the ambiguity that, by Obi's own account, was a primary reason he could no longer remain in the party. It also positions Obi, who is from the South‑East, as the likely beneficiary, with Kwankwaso, a northerner, positioned as a potential running mate.
Atiku's Camp Denies Defection Talks, Stands Firm
Atiku's camp has swiftly dismissed any suggestion of a move. His media adviser, Paul Ibe, told Vanguard there were no discussions suggesting a shift to the NDC. "If that is the case, I will be the first to know. I don't think that there's anything like that," Ibe said when contacted. The denial comes amid growing pressure on the former Vice President, who has now watched both Obi and Kwankwaso — the two men who, alongside him, collectively won over 70 per cent of the votes in the 2023 presidential election — abandon the ADC for a rival platform that has explicitly zoned its ticket to the South, where Atiku, a northerner, cannot contest. The ADC is now, for all practical purposes, the Atiku party — a platform built around a single candidate whose electoral appeal, while formidable, has consistently failed to translate into the kind of cross‑regional coalition that Obi and Kwankwaso have demonstrated they can mobilise.
PDP BoT Appoints Turaki as Interim Chairman to Fill Leadership Vacuum
Meanwhile, the battle for the soul of the Peoples Democratic Party took another turn on Monday when the Board of Trustees, chaired by Senator Adolphus Wabara, convened the party's 103rd National Executive Committee meeting at the Yar'Adua Centre in Abuja and ratified the appointment of Kabiru Tanimu Turaki (SAN) as chairman of a 13‑member Interim National Working Committee, alongside Ambassador Taofeek Arapaja as national secretary. Wabara told the gathering that 142 members, representing two‑thirds of the NEC composition, attended the meeting in line with the PDP constitution. He called on INEC to "respect the judgment of the Supreme Court by uploading the names of the caretaker committee members on its portal" and urged loyal party members to "set aside personal interests and work as a team."
Oyo State Governor Seyi Makinde, the lone PDP governor present, described this as the party's "darkest moment" but insisted that "when the day is about to break, that is usually the darkest moment." He vowed that members of his faction would not give up their fight for plural democracy within the party. However, the Wike‑backed faction, which continues to occupy the party's national secretariat at Wadata Plaza, swiftly rejected the gathering. National Publicity Secretary Jungudo Haruna Mohammed called on party members and the public to "disregard this illegitimate assembly and its outcomes. It has no constitutional basis, no legal standing, and no binding authority whatsoever." The PDP thus enters the critical pre‑primary season with two competing factions claiming legitimacy — a fractured platform that was once Africa's largest political party but now finds itself fighting for relevance in the shadow of a rapidly consolidating NDC.
An Opposition at the Crossroads
The events of Monday — Galadima's ultimatum, the NDC's decisive move on zoning, and the PDP's attempt to stabilise itself through an interim leadership — reveal an opposition in flux. The NDC is consolidating rapidly around a southern‑zoned ticket and a clear electoral timetable. The ADC is shrinking into an Atiku‑centric platform that may not survive the AGF‑backed deregistration suit currently before Justice Peter Lifu. The PDP is locked in a factional war that the Supreme Court's ruling was supposed to resolve but has instead deepened. Nine months before the 2027 presidential election, the opposition has more platforms, more candidates, and more uncertainty than at any point since the return to democracy. Galadima has made his move. Atiku has made his calculation. The voters will deliver the only verdict that counts.
Stay tuned to Unuevbo TV for continuing coverage of the opposition realignments reshaping the 2027 presidential race.
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