Abuja, NIGERIA – Prominent social commentator and “table shaker” Reno Omokri has criticized former Senate President David Mark for his involvement in a protracted power struggle for the chairmanship of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) against Nafiu Bala Gombe.
In a statement released on Tuesday, April 7, 2026—on the eve of David Mark’s 78th birthday—Omokri expressed bewilderment that a man of Mark’s age and political pedigree would be “dragging a position” with a politician decades his junior.
Okay News gathered that Omokri highlighted the vast age gap between the two contenders to underscore his point. He noted that David Mark, born April 8, 1948, received his first political appointment as Chairman of the Abandoned Properties Implementation Committee in 1976—exactly 50 years ago. At that time, Omokri remarked, the mother of his current rival, Nafiu Bala, was likely still a child.
“Nafiu had not even been conceived in his mother’s womb when David Mark was made Communications Minister in 1987,” Omokri stated, pointing out that Nafiu Bala, 35, is even fifteen years younger than Mark’s own daughter, Honourable Blessing Onyeche Onuh, who is 50 this year.
Omokri argued that the leadership crisis within the ADC is a self-inflicted wound caused by “elders” who have abandoned their roles as mediators to struggle for relevance. He contended that because the party’s natural conflict-resolution organs—such as the Board of Trustees—are populated by the very people fighting for power, there is no neutral ground for reconciliation.
“The problem with the ADC is that the elders in that party… are the very people struggling for power,” Omokri said. “As such, there is no neutral person with sufficient clout to intervene between David Mark and Nafiu Bala.”
The former presidential aide exonerated the Federal Government, the Presidency, and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) from blame, insisting that the breakdown of the “moral fabric” of the party lies solely with its leadership. His comments follow a recent decision by INEC to halt correspondence with the ADC pending a court ruling, a move the David Mark-led faction has vocally protested as a “derecognition” of its leadership.
