The National Secretary of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, has declared that the ADC is a platform for Nigeria’s youth and women, with people’s welfare and well-being at the top of its agenda.
Speaking in Lagos while receiving defectors from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the All Progressives Congress (APC), and the Labour Party (LP), the former two-term governor of Osun State stressed that Nigeria’s future lies in empowering young people and women.
Among the defectors were prominent figures such as former Lagos PDP Chairman, Chief Muritala Ashorobi; Captain Tunji Shelley; PDP Vice Chairman, Lagos Central, Tai Benedict; and Chief Niyi Adams, former PDP Youth Leader in Lagos.
Aregbesola, who was accompanied by Senator Kolawole Ogunwale, Mr George Ashiru, the Lagos ADC Chairman, and other chieftains, noted that the ADC’s constitution boldly affirms 35 percent affirmative action for both youth and women in leadership and elective positions.
“The ADC’s constitution affirms the role of youth and women in leadership. This is not tokenism; it is a recognition that Nigeria’s future lies in empowering those who have long been underrepresented,” Aregbesola said. “With 35 percent representation each for women and youth — and their overlap — their combined representation will be no less than 50 percent. This structure makes the ADC unquestionably the party of the youth.”
He also criticised the current administration, saying Nigeria is passing through hardship and uncertainty. He warned that any government that fails to prioritise the welfare of its people risks irrelevance and eventual collapse.
“There is a limit to which the people can be squeezed and pushed before something eventually gives,” Aregbesola warned.
He emphasised that the ADC is not a one-man-owned or financed party but “a collective of patriotic citizens coming together as equals to salvage a nation that is fast sliding into a precipice.”
On internal democracy, he assured that every member’s voice matters and every vote counts, urging members to focus on building the party from the grassroots while avoiding “nonproductive debates and strife with agents of dying dinosaurs.”
Addressing the defectors, he said: “The task before us is clear: we must rescue this beautiful country from the path of destruction and build a new Nigeria, a nation our children will be proud to inherit.”
In a goodwill message, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar described the ADC as a movement with bright prospects. Represented by Professor Ola Olateju of Achievers University, Owo, Ondo State, he said: “ADC, to us, is not a political party. It is a movement, a movement of Nigerians for a better Nigeria.”
Reporting by Taoreed Abdullahi