03/05/2026
*3,436,497 JUDGES. NO APPEAL. THE BACKROOM IS CLOSED.*
*MAY 25: SUBMIT YOUR POPULARITY TO THE PEOPLE OR STAND DOWN*
Aare Amerijoye DOT.B
Nobody gives anyone a ticket. Every candidate must stand before the registered members and be counted. That is the law of democracy, and it is the law of the African Democratic Congress.
The ADC has spoken with clarity and schedule. The presidential primary is fixed for May 25, 2026. Not a rumour, not a speculation, not a backroom arrangement between godfathers in a hotel suite. A date. A venue. A process. The 3,436,497 registered members of the ADC are the only jury that matters, and their court opens on May 25.
To every aspirant, every support group, every campaign organisation flying banners and printing posters across this republic, the message is the same: bring your assertions here. Bring your constituencies. Bring your claims of popularity. Bring the crowd that follows you on social media, the rally that filled a stadium, the endorsements from traditional rulers and trade unions and diaspora associations. Bring all of it, and submit it to the direct primary. That is where assertions become verdicts.
For too long, Nigerian politics has operated on the assumption that tickets are distributed, not earned. That the real election happens in private, between powerful men who divide the country like a family estate and present the public with a fait accompli. The ADC timetable of May 25 is a direct repudiation of that culture. No primary means no candidate. No candidate means no presidency. The shortcut has been abolished.
Some will be tempted to manage the process, to read the register selectively, to interpret internal democracy as a phrase rather than a practice. Let them be warned. The 3,436,497 registered members are not a figure on a letterhead. They are men and women in wards and polling units across thirty-six states and the Federal Capital Territory. They have revalidated their membership. They are on the digital register submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission. They exist, and on May 25, they will speak.
The Atikulates are ready. The Obidients are ready. The Kwankwasiya are ready. The Amaechi supporters are ready. Every formation, every tendency, every bloc of organised sentiment within this coalition must now channel its energy into one question: who commands the genuine affection of those members? Not who has the most money for television adverts. Not who has the most photogenic rallies. Who has the most members?
That is the only question May 25 will answer.
No malice. No acrimony. No bamboozling. As you stand before the registered members, so you shall appear. The primary is not a threat to any aspirant with genuine support. It is only a threat to the pretender, to the manufactured candidate, to the name sustained by noise rather than numbers.
May 25 is coming. The jury is assembled. Step forward.
Aare Amerijoye DOT.B, Director General,
The Narrative Force, thenarrativeforce.org
*May 3, 2026*
