The African Democratic Congress (ADC) does not need a coalition of opposition parties to defeat President Bola Tinubu in the 2027 presidential election, the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Bolaji Abdullahi, has said.

Abdullahi made the declaration on Friday during an interview on Channels Television’s Politics Today, expressing confidence that the party’s presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, could defeat Tinubu without depending on a broader opposition alliance.

“We are going to win. We don’t need a coalition to win this election. The African Democratic Congress does not need a coalition to win this election,” Abdullahi said.

He acknowledged that a broad-based coalition could make the party’s task easier, but maintained that such an alliance was not essential to securing victory.

“If we are able to build the kind of coalition that we started to build, maybe to make our job easier, but we don’t need that coalition. We don’t necessarily need the coalition to win the election,” he said.

Asked whether Atiku could defeat Tinubu without the support of a coalition, Abdullahi responded, “I believe so, and that’s our thinking, and that’s what we are working on.”

He said the ADC expected to attract support from voters across the country, “from Abia to Zamfara,” arguing that the experiences of some Nigerians under the Tinubu administration could influence their voting decisions in 2027.

“The experience of Nigerians in the last three years has pushed people to the extent that they are saying that anybody but President Bola Ahmed Tinubu,” he said.

The comments come amid the opposition realignment that began in 2025 with an attempt by several opposition figures to form a united platform against Tinubu and the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Opposition figures, including Atiku, Peter Obi, Nasir El-Rufai, Rotimi Amaechi, David Mark and Rauf Aregbesola, among others, joined forces and adopted the relatively low-profile ADC as a platform for challenging Tinubu and the APC in the 2027 election.

The coalition was formally unveiled with Mark as interim National Chairman and Aregbesola as National Secretary.

However, the political arrangement later suffered internal disagreements, with Obi and former Kano State Governor Rabiu Kwankwaso subsequently leaving the ADC and joining the Nigeria Democratic Congress, where both are seeking the presidency.

Abdullahi said the ADC remained open to discussions with other opposition parties, but clarified that such engagements were not primarily aimed at producing a single presidential candidate.

“We are still having conversations among ourselves, opposition political parties, and there are different areas,” he said.

According to him, possible areas of cooperation include election monitoring and protecting votes during the electoral process.

“The conversation is not about how do we produce a single presidential candidate. The conversations predominantly are about how… what areas of cooperation is possible,” he said.

“For example, if we are able to develop a common protocol for election monitoring and for policing our votes, that is major.”

The ADC spokesperson also said the party had challenged the APC-led government to a debate over its proposal to restore fuel subsidy, arguing that Nigerians deserved to hear both sides of the argument.

“We have said we will bring subsidy back,” Abdullahi said, adding that the ADC was prepared to debate the issue with the APC.

“I’m not an economist. You have your economists. We have our economists. We have our presidential candidate, and as a matter of fact, I’m the spokesperson of the ADC. Bring the spokesperson of the APC. Let us debate this subsidy issue because that is what Nigerians want to hear,” he said.