By Steve Osuji

No Traction Still: Why is the ADC withering and seeming like it’s dead on arrival? The fanfare with which Mr Peter Obi and key politicians gathered in Enugu to declare for the African Democratic Congress at the end of January had lit up the political arena, giving hope of a tsunami about to wake.

But alas, it has turned out to be a weak spark after all.

Nigerians who had expected a political behemoth rampaging across the country are now wondering what’s going on?

No serious activities are going on in the party so far; no intentional effort to organise and build up structural fortresses across the land for a fledgling organisation.

It’s true that campaigns are yet to start but the party doesn’t inspire confidence in Nigerians who seek a credible and viable alternative to an APC that has failed them woefully over the past decade.

EVEN ATIKU’S SON DECAMPED: It must have been a sinking feeling for many members when Abba Abubakar the second son of ADC’s kingpin, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar publicly announced his jumping ship to APC.

But Abba didn’t leave without rubbing porridge on the face of his father and his party. He proclaimed to the world that no party can beat President Bola Tinubu in 2027. He has performed great; he has led without nepotism and religious biases, Abba opined about his father’s prime political opponent.

Further, Atiku’s heir, Umar Abubakar remains a member of the PDP and a serving commissioner in Adamawa State under Governor Ahmadu Fintiri.  It’s either the twain have no confidence in their father’s politics or they see no hope in his party, ADC.

APC CAPTURE KANO, SQUASH KWANKWASO: While, no politician of note has as much as strayed into the ADC, just last Monday, (January 26th), Kano State governor, Kabir Abba Yusuf, joined the gravy train to APC leaving his benefactor, Rabiu Kwankwaso and his NNPP in the lurch. Or more appropriately, in the ditch, because the governor didn’t only move house, he literally moved with the house.

Kwankwaso is currently left out there in the harsh, harmattan cold of Kano. Keen political watchers had noted the fissures in Kwankwaso’s NNPP. The  kingpin of Kano politics himself was evidently in trouble in the last few weeks, as the APC war machine broke into his Kano fortress. Kwankwaso was a drowning man and desperately sought anchor or even a straw to grasp. ADC looked on morosely as APC conquered Kano and castrated Kwankwaso. It’s a telltale sign that ADC is currently snoozing.

Again, Tuesday, January 27th, Plateau State governor, Caleb Mutfwang joined the APC bandwagon. APC has about 30 governors in its kitty out of 36.

WHY’S NO ONE JOINING ADC? The most plausible answer is that the party is seen as an ATIKU PARTY. Then the coming of Peter Obi and his OBiDIENTS has further fractured the house into two ideological divides instead of bolstering it. As it stands, ADC can be said to be a two headed animal. It suffers both personality and ideology crises.

The Atiku factor, his obduracy, inflexibility and heedless ambition are pissing off many people many who would have loved to take shelter under the ADC.

Even many in the PDP who know they are nursing a cadaver, would rather be undertakers than  join the ADC.

Those who cannot stand Atiku’s undemocratic and  authoritarian ways; those who cannot stand his blind ambition; those who think he is insensitive to the feelings of southerners with his born-to-rule posturing. Those who detest his offensive me-or-nobody else traits feel safer within the APC fold.

Peter Obi on the other hand, has done nothing to convince his ardent followers how he would co-habit with Atiku. Most people believe that the primary is already a done deal for Atiku; so what happens to Obi and his massive followers who seek a drastic change from the old order Atiku represents?

WITHOUT AN ARROWHEAD: When the APC was in formation in early 2013, Muhammadu Buhari was unmistakably the fulcrum and cornerstone of the coalition. He was the pillar around which the party was founded and of course, he was the most viable and most electable. He was therefore, the undisputed candidate.

The primary was a mere formality.

Between 2013 up until the election in 2015, the APC rolled out a propaganda machine not known in Nigeria’s political history to whitewash Buhari’s ingrained grimes (including being a coup plotter and a despot) and make him presentable once again to Nigerians and the world.

That was one of the winning formulas that helped the new party to bring down the house of the ruling PDP.

ADC NEEDS AN ARROWHEAD NOW: Time is running out on ADC. It must stop this charade of insisting on primary as determinant of an arrowhead. Obi has the edge; he has the momentum, he is viable and tested. The party ought to rally round him to face the ruling party next year. This fact needs to be made known today!

Besides, the south should complete its term and southeast ought to be supported to raise a president in order for Nigeria to heal fully, 56 years after the civil war.

LAST LINE: PRESIDENT TINUBU STUMBLES AGAIN What other sign does the APC need to understand that President Bola Tinubu has lost the capacity to lead Nigeria? The Democratic Party had to force the incumbent, Joe Biden, to stand down in the last US election when it became evident he couldn’t lead anymore.

The APC must do Nigeria the favour and bite the bullet. Tinubu can’t lead Nigeria for another four years. He is too infirm.

By Valentine Obienyem

Barr. Reno Omokri has become one of the most unserious public commentators in Nigeria today. A man whose positions shift with the wind can hardly be said to possess a position at all. As Søren Kierkegaard observed, “Purity of heart is to will one thing,” yet Reno wills everything that keeps him afloat: relevance today, appointment tomorrow, denial the next. He oscillates between posing as a pastor and posturing as an intellectual, masking emptiness with pedantry and verbosity. In truth, he stands for nothing. He is precisely the kind of hollow figure Gabriel Marcel warned against: a man cut loose from belief, anchored to nothing, and dependent on nothing beyond power itself.

Nigerians are well aware of the accusations Reno once made against President Bola Tinubu. For those who may not remember, it is important to restate them. Reno did not accuse Tinubu of just one wrongdoing; he attributed to him, with evidence, almost every imaginable moral and political failing. He described him as a drug addict, a drug lord, the most corrupt Nigerian alive, a certificate forger, and a man unfit in character and history to lead the country. He warned that allowing such a person to become president would be a national disaster, arguing that Nigeria would degenerate into a narco-state similar to Colombia, where criminality would be normalized and corruption elevated to state policy. Reno was so sure that any specimen from any part of Tinubu’s body – hair, saliva, sweat, urine – that underwent testing would show traces of many variants of drugs.

On multiple platforms, including Nigerian electronic media, Reno argued that Nigeria must never elect, in his own words, a drug lord, a supremely corrupt politician, and a certificate forger, warning that doing so would amount to a moral and institutional collapse. He maintained that such an election would signal to international drug traffickers that Nigeria is a safe haven, reward fraud at the highest level, and teach young Nigerians that deception is more profitable than integrity. According to him,  if corruption  was on the throne, it would cease to be an aberration and become a governing principle, the rule of law would be reduced to a slogan, institutions would be hollowed out, and public office transformed into an instrument of organized plunder – making national decline not a risk, but an inevitability.

Very soon, Reno began to eulogize the same Tinubu he had once denounced, portraying him as an angel of light. He even dined with him dressed in “Aso Oke,” presenting it,  as Alcibiades, his Athenian variant, once did, as evidence that he had become one with Tinubu in body and spirit. At the time, many Nigerians questioned the reasoning – legal, moral, or political – behind his appointment as an ambassador. Some suggested that Tinubu appointed him not only as a reward or a bribe, but also as recognition of a mutual understanding: that each had a vested interest in protecting the other. If Reno had truly lied about Tinubu, why reward him? If he had spoken falsehoods, why elevate him? One prevailing view was that the appointment was a calculated effort to silence Reno, prevent further revelations, and compel him to recant or deny his previous claims.

Is this not why Tinubu is often described as a master strategist? By appointing Reno, he effectively neutralized him. Today, Reno not only refrains from revealing more; he actively denies what he once passionately defended. The documents he claimed to have procured no longer exist – at least in his public narrative. He is recently writing tomes to wash his master and make him appear clean.

Reno now behaves like a man permanently on the defensive, barking endlessly in his master’s interest because bones have been thrown his way. He is visibly uncomfortable, especially when confronted with his own past statements. This discomfort became evident when Mr. Omoyele Sowore, in his ongoing forensic battle, tendered video evidence of Reno’s earlier categorical statements  as proof that President Tinubu is indeed a drug dealer without character. Even the presiding judge expressed shock that the DSS cleared such a man despite the volume of evidence placed before the court. Yes, he was cleared the Nigerian way because, even during the time of his clearance, a lot of clandestine phone calls and pressure were reportedly mounted. The judge who expressed surprise merely pretended to act as a citizen in Plato’s Republic rather than in Nigeria inhabited by the likes of Reno and Tinubu.

What those who love truth have as a weapon today is that the evidence of Mr. President’s despicable character comes from his appointees and those who, being close to him, should know better. Reno is today one of them. This is why it is not surprising that the evidence of his character is being proved today by sincere reference to whom he truly is, as revealed by his ambassador.

In a global context, the world is witnessing renewed seriousness in the fight against drug trafficking. From Venezuela to Colombia, drug barons are being pursued, extradited, and prosecuted. We have seen how even sitting leaders are not immune when evidence emerges. Documentary evidence exists, once cited by Reno himself, linking President Tinubu to past drug-related trading  in the United States. While forwarding the documents and citing his ambassador as the source for conclusive proof to President Donald Trump of the USA, we are also prepared to forward these same materials to any country where Reno is posted as ambassador. Such countries should be faced with a clear choice: either reject him on grounds of credibility and complicity, or accept the risk of hosting a man whose own testimony implicates the president he now defends. It will hopefully contribute abundantly to how the host country will view not just the ambassador, but the one he represents. “Birds of a feather,” as it is said, “flock together.”

Reno represents exactly what the Germans call the “zeitgeist”, the spirit of the time. He is a mirror of the age of Tinubu, a reflection of shifting loyalties, moral flexibility, and the transactional nature of influence. In this sense, he is, like Bayo Onanuga, Daniel Bwala and Femi Fani-Kayode, a product of the system he now serves and a symbol of what Tinubu represents: power that rewards compliance, punishes truth, and transforms critics into apologists. Reno’s story is not just about one man; it is about the era, the values it elevates, and the compromises it demands. He is, in every sense, the embodiment of his master’s spirit.

Obienyem, a Lawyer, writes from Awka, Anambra  State