Festus Keyamo, minister of aviation, says the All Democratic Alliance (ADA) is not a coalition of political forces and “cannot be described as a merger”.
Keyamo made the remarks on Friday in a post on his X page. The minister was reacting to the emergence of ADA, a new political party backed by the Nigerian National Coalition Group (NNCG).
On Friday, opposition leaders under the coalition movement applied to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to register ADA ahead of the 2027 elections.
The coalition is spearheaded by former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar and Nasir el-Rufai, the former governor of Kaduna.
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The application, dated June 19 and addressed to the INEC chairman, was co-signed by Akin Ricketts, national chairman of ADA, and Abdullahi Musa Elayo, pro tem national secretary.
Speaking on the development, the aviation minister said the move is a failed attempt to recreate the 2013 coalition that birthed the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Keyamo said the promoters are fuelling unnecessary hype, adding that it amounts to “psychological warfare against Nigerians” and reflects a “weak attempt at mass appeal”.
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“This is just a simple application for party registration. There is nothing like a ‘coalition’ here,” he wrote.
“It is an unnecessary hype the promoters have been struggling to create all along; it is just psychological warfare against Nigerians — a weak attempt at mass appeal.
“No recognized existing political party is part of this. If they are thinking of recreating what the APC did in 2013, then this is nothing but a pedestrian joke; a complete mockery of that seismic political coalition that birthed APC in 2013.
“A few individuals exercising their constitutional right to form a new political party cannot be described as a ‘coalition’ or even a ‘merger.’
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“This is no different from several political associations springing up every day for the same purpose.
“After all the razzmatazz, it boils down to the fact that a new political party is just attempting registration by a few Nigerians; it is a disappointing anti-climax to all the preceding pomp and pageantry.”
In 2013, the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), and New Peoples Democratic Party (nPDP) merged to form the APC.
The APC alliance, with Muhammadu Buhari as the presidential flagbearer, successfully defeated the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the presidential election, unseating Goodluck Jonathan.
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