By Okoi Obono-obla
It appears that the NDC is disorderly in Cross River State, as its governorship candidate is mired in controversy.
Its candidate, John Odey, is rather a placeholder, which means he may likely be substituted or replaced. Moreover, he is from Northern Cross River.
By the local zoning arrangement in the State, the governorship is zoned specifically to the Southern Senatorial District for the 2027 election, in keeping with the rotation tradition since 1999. Other parties such as the APC, ADC, and PDP have zoned their governorship tickets to candidates from the South, while the NDC’s choice of a Northern candidate violates that understanding and has already drawn protest from the Obidient Movement in the State.
The disorder extends beyond the governorship ticket to the State House of Assembly.
INEC displayed the provisional list of candidates for governorship and State Houses of Assembly on Saturday, 29 August 2026, at its 18 LGA offices across Cross River State for the 25 constituencies.
As of Monday, 31 August 2026, INEC has not published a searchable national PDF for Assembly candidates, so there is no consolidated online count. However, field checks indicate the NDC slate is in disarray:
NDC National Secretary Ikenna Alex-Morgan Enekweizu stated that the authentic list had been submitted to INEC and that lists circulating on social media are fake.
NDC National Publicity Secretary Osa Director told TheCable that claims the party has no candidates are “lies from the pit of hell” and that the party has placeholders in some states, insisting John Odey remains the governorship candidate in Cross River.
Only one Assembly candidate is publicly confirmed from independent reports: Ambassador Kennedy Njar-Nsan for Ikom 1 State Constituency under the NDC platform.
This aligns with my earlier field observation on 31 August that the NDC failed to fill candidates in 11 states, covering 233 LGAs (30.1% of Nigeria), and filed only about 70% of National Assembly positions – 328 of 469 – leaving about 141 federal constituencies blank. Cross River is among the affected states.
This impasse and stalemate will definitely reverberate in the presidential election billed for January 2027 if the choice of governorship and Assembly candidates is not resolved soon, as governorship and Assembly candidates are a vital tool for mobilizing and galvanizing grassroots support at the polling units, electoral wards, and local government areas during elections.
Cross River State has 18 local government areas, 196 electoral wards, and 3,281 polling units, which are the fulcrum for electoral organization, voting, and mobilization.
In conclusion, with a placeholder governorship candidate from the wrong senatorial zone and a near-empty State House of Assembly slate of only one confirmed candidate out of 25, the NDC has no anchor to mobilize those polling units. It risks entering the triple presidential, National Assembly, and State Assembly elections of 15 January 2027 with no coordinators, no polling unit agents, and no capacity to secure the constitutionally required 25% in Cross River State. The failure of the 2026 filing cannot be cured by substitution and will cost the party millions of votes, not from lack of popularity, but from lack of ballot presence and agent coverage.
