Seun Shotunde, Abeokuta
Over 3,000 members of the Rainbow Alliance in Ogun State have defected to the African Democratic Congress (ADC), seeking to wrest power from the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in the 2027 general elections.
Also about bout 10,000 members of the Nigeria Automobile Technician Association (NATA), comprising various artisans such as painters, mechanics, and panel beaters, have defected to the African Democratic Congress (ADC).
The Rainbow Alliance Southwest Leader, Prof. Ola Olateju, who disclosed this on Wednesday during the integration of members into the ADC coalition in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, said that the Rainbow Alliance merged with the coalition because of the trust it had in ADC to fulfill its political dream of a better Nigeria.
Olateju said that since party leaders including former Minister of Transport Rotimi Ameachi and Former Minister of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, and Former Governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai as well as former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, were in the coalition, it became expedient for the movement to join the coalition too.
He said that members of the Rainbow Alliance, consisting of politicians, civil organizations, religious bodies, activists, to mention few, were drawn from the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) and the ruling APC, which sees ADC as a political platform that could bring the sufferings of Nigerians to an end.
The Professor of Political Science at Achievers University, Owoh, Ondo State, said that the alliance came to fore shortly after the 2023 elections with the combination of minds determined to rid the country out of its skyrocketing inflation, hunger, economic hardships with its coalition to ADC and taking over the reigns of power from APC come 2027 general elections.
He said that the Rainbow Alliance has at least 20 coordinators in each 20 local council of the state, insisting that with such numbers of coordinators he was certain that they could pull massive crowd for the ADC coalition to defeat the ruling APC both at the centre and across the 36 states of the federation.
Olateju said “We came up immediately after 2023 General Elections some of us that are intellectuals, activists, politicians, religious bodies, civil organization, came together and we brainstorm how can we make a change in the country, can we have a movement, can we use rainbow as a symbol representing the movement.”
“So when the coalition discussion came up we were involved and we discovered that most of these ideas we formulated could not be achieved with a political party and we choose ADC.The essence of our movement is to ensure that every Nigerian segments is adequately represented and occupy political offices”.
“We have 20 local government in Ogun at least coordinators alone we have minimum of 20 in each local government, so we will be looking at 3000 people already aligned and being integrated into ADC. This is just a symbolic integration. We are part of the coalition of ADC, some of us work Atiku Abubakar, some of our members are PDP, some are APC.”
“You could hear the party Chairman saying that they are giving NATA the opportunity to come out and contest for elective positions in the next election is part of our programmes that those who have been voting can also be voted for. We all believe let us have a new beginning which resonate with our thinking so we have no other party to go than ADC, had it been the coalition did not adopt ADC we won’t be here because we want a change.” he stressed
In the same vein, Spokesperson for NATA, Com. Hameed Adewale, said that the association had over 10,000 members already joining the ADC coalition to include their members in partisan politics and bring about the needed change for a better Nigeria.
“Because of the changing of government and moving forward of our members. About 10,000 members of NATA in Ogun State will join ADC and I also will advice everybody to join ADC” Adewale noted
Earlier, ADC’s State Chairman, Otunba Femi Soluade, welcome the groups, saying that the two mergers would improve the membership of the party in the state, insisting that, under his leadership as the chairman, they won’t regret their decision.
Soluade opined that ADC was not resting its oars to win the 2027 presidential elections and take over the reigns of power in all the 36 states of the country including the local councils, while calling on Nigerians citizens to shun money bag politics.
“it is a work in progress and we are only consolidating and we are continuing building on the foundation that has been solidly laid and for us to bring divers group of people, I have no doubt in my mind that we have blossom. There will soon be a convergence of all political parties and groups, movements that have joined us.”
“It is not only to be in power, it is not basically we are not desperate to take over power, we are far from it, but our country needs a change our country needs to move forward you cannot have water in your house and you are feeling taste, or using spittle to wash your hand or face that is the reason why we are coming together as a political party with different ideology to continue galvanizing people of likes minds to take over the reigns pf power.” he added
