Factional noise, ill-advised strategy: The ADC protest — by Segun Showunmi
Let us be clear: the right to protest is not a license for political opportunism, nor is it a tool for blackmailing institutions into surrender. Those now shouting the loudest under the banner of grievance are, in many cases, recent converts, political migrants who only just arrived, yet already demand to harvest where they neither sowed nor invested.
This is the contradiction at the heart of the current noise from elements within the African Democratic Congress (ADC). Having plied their trade across multiple parties, often with little regard for institutional stability, they now seek to strong-arm the system into granting them legitimacy that their own processes and in some cases, the courts have yet to validate.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is not a clearing house for political desperation. It is not obligated to bend to street pressure, media theatrics, or the manufactured outrage of actors attempting to bypass due process. Where party constitutions are in dispute and matters are before the courts, INEC has a duty to stand down not cave in.
What we are witnessing is not principled dissent; it is calculated pressure. A familiar cast of recycled politicians, long accustomed to gaming weak structures, now testing whether they can once again bend the system to their will. But this is precisely the behavior a serious democracy must reject.
No country with any regard for institutional integrity allows a handful of itinerant political actors however loud to destabilize its processes. You do not reward indiscipline with recognition. You do not resolve internal incoherence through external intimidation. And you certainly do not permit those who ignored the rules yesterday to dictate outcomes today.
If there are grievances, the path is clear: follow your party’s constitution, submit to the courts, and earn legitimacy through process not protest. Anything else is not democracy; it is opportunism dressed up as agitation.
The line must hold. Institutions must not blink. And those who seek shortcuts must be prepared to confront the consequences of their own choices.
