Nigeria’s Minister of Aviation, Festus Keyamo, has mocked the newly formed coalition party, All Democratic Alliance, ADA, saying it is not a coalition of political forces and cannot be described as a merger.
Keyamo made this statement in a post on his official X handle on Friday.
He was reacting to the emergence of ADA, a new political party supported by the Nigerian National Coalition Group, NNCG.
DAILY POST reports that opposition leaders under the coalition movement on Friday applied to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to register ADA ahead of the 2027 elections.
The coalition is said to be overseen by former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and the immediate past governor of Kaduna State, Nasir el-Rufai.
DAILY POST gathered that the application, dated June 19 and addressed to the INEC Chairman, was co-signed by National Chairman of ADA, Akin Ricketts, and pro tem National Secretary, Abdullahi Musa Elayo.
Keyamo, while speaking on the development, stated that the move was a failed attempt to recreate the 2013 coalition that brought forth the All Progressives Congress, APC.
According to him, the promoters were fuelling unnecessary hype, stressing that it amounts to psychological warfare against Nigerians and reflects a weak attempt at mass appeal.
“This is just a simple application for party registration. There is nothing like a ‘coalition’ here.
“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.’
“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,” he wrote on X.