ABUJA, Nigeria — Nigeria‘s political party, the African Democratic Congress (ADC), has inaugurated a National Reconciliation and Peace Committee to address internal grievances following its recently concluded primary elections.
Okay News reports that ADC National Chairman David Mark inaugurated the panel in Abuja on September 2, 2026, warning party members against internal sabotage and revenge politics ahead of the 2027 general elections.
Speaking at the inauguration, Mark said electoral victory should not determine who remains valued within the political organization.
“An election may determine who carries the flag, but it must never determine who belongs to the Party,” Mark said.
The former Senate President urged party members to shift focus toward building a united structure capable of winning support from voters.
“Our real challenge is not the ADC member who contested against you. Our real challenge is to build a united political platform capable of winning the confidence of Nigerians in 2027,” Mark said.
The panel was established under Article 9.1 of the ADC Constitution. It is tasked with engaging aspirants, candidates, leaders, and stakeholders to resolve disputes and integrate unsuccessful primary candidates into the party structure.
“There must be no internal sabotage. No politics of revenge. No permanent winners and no permanent losers. We are one political family,” Mark said.
Responding on behalf of the panel, committee chairman Tunde Ogbeha acknowledged that the primaries created divisions across state working structures.
“There is no doubt that injury have been caused in one way or the other through primaries and other working structure in our respective states, but it’s not impossible that these issues can be arrested and will work in the interest of the party,” Ogbeha said.
Ogbeha urged members to place party interests above personal political goals during the reconciliation process.
“Our responsibility is not just healing wounds, our responsibility is to ensure that we achieve our objective of changing the narrative in Nigeria by winning the next election,” Ogbeha said.
He also encouraged defeated aspirants to remain with the party for future political contests.
“If we don’t succeed in what we are looking for this time around, four years is not too long. There will be another opportunity to present yourself,” Ogbeha said.
“We are going to be honest. We are going to be transparent and as much as possible, do the best we can to reconcile our party, and we ensure that this party is supreme to other individual interest,” Ogbeha said.
The committee features Tunde Ogbeha as chairman, Oserheimen Osunbor as deputy chairman, Peter Oyewale as secretary, and Isaac Dare Oketade as deputy secretary, along with six zonal legal advisers and representatives from Nigeria‘s six geopolitical zones.
