Politics as Strategy: Lessons from APC and ADC

By Okoi Obono-Obla 

Politics as Strategy: Lessons from APC and ADC:

Politics is often dismissed as a dumping ground for the manipulative, corrupt, greedy, and megalomaniacal. Yet, in reality, it is a domain for intelligent, strategic, and deliberate thinkers. Politics, much like war, demands serious planning and the ability to outmaneuver opponents. In war, no enemy will help you out of pity or sympathy; instead, they exploit weakness and disorder to inflict maximum defeat. Likewise, in politics, when opponents perceive disorganization, they capitalize on it.

Those who believe, like the ADC, that the APC would assist them in organizing their party are wasting their time. Protest marches, demonstrations, insults, and loud rhetoric will not suffice. I was in the opposition between 1999 and 2015, and it was certainly not a tea party. The APC we see today was built through hard strategic planning, resources, time, and sacrifice. The merger of opposition parties in 2013 was the culmination of negotiations that began as early as 2008 between late President Muhammadu Buhari and President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. By 2012, exploratory discussions matured into formal merger committees involving the CPC and ACN. Initially, the ANPP was not part of the talks, but the ACN insisted on their inclusion, and the CPC conceded. This illustrates that politics is about dialogue, consensus-building, and negotiation—giving some and taking others.

Politics is not about forcing your way, wielding money, or peddling undue influence. Unfortunately, when coalitionists moved en masse into the ADC, they attempted a military-style hijack of the party, supplanting its leadership and imposing themselves without dialogue. Instead of engaging with figures like Nafiu Bala Gombe, Dumebi Kachikwu, and other grassroots leaders, they pursued a poorly developed and hazardously executed strategy. Predictably, it failed. Now, the coalitionists seek scapegoats in the APC, INEC, and government, even though INEC initially supported their attempted coup within the ADC.

I sympathize with leaders like Dumebi Kachikwu and Nafiu Bala Gombe, and other young people who invested in building the ADC only to face outsiders trying to seize their efforts. Politics requires patience, negotiation, and sacrifice—not shortcuts or forceful imposition.

Conclusion:

Politics is not a game of noise or brute force but of strategy, dialogue, and sacrifice. Those who fail to understand this will continue to falter, while those who plan deliberately, negotiate wisely, and build consensus will endure.