The crisis over control of the 2027 campaign machinery of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) deepened yesterday as presidential candidate Peter Obi backed the party leadership and rejected the 59-member campaign council unveiled by the Obi-Kwankwaso (OK) Movement.
Obi, speaking on Arise Television on Thursday night, said the OK Movement, Obidient Movement, Kwankwasiyya and other platforms supporting his presidential bid were support groups and should not operate as parallel structures to the political party.
His position directly contradicts the OK Movement’s insistence that it is an independent political organisation entitled to establish and manage its own campaign structure.
‘NDC is the political party we all belong to, and I agree entirely with the position of the leader. OK Movement, Obidient Group, Kwankwasiyya and other support groups are supporting groups,’ Obi said.
‘They must play their role as supporting groups, supporting the party. They should not play the role of the party,’ he added.
Asked specifically whether the OK Movement’s 59-member Presidential Campaign Council had been constituted with his approval, Obi was unequivocal.
‘Not at all. And I say it here, it is wrong,’ he said.
Obi added that any activity undertaken in the name of the joint Obi-Kwankwaso ticket should have the express approval of both candidates.
The development is the latest twist in an escalating dispute between the NDC leadership and the OK Movement over the boundaries between the party’s official campaign machinery and independent groups mobilising support for its candidates.
The NDC had earlier disowned the 59-member council, while National Leader Seriake Dickson warned support groups against assuming the functions of the party.
Dickson had described the establishment of a separate presidential campaign council by a support group as ‘unheard of’ and ‘nonsensical’, insisting that support groups should concentrate on grassroots mobilisation rather than compete with the party for political space.
But the OK Movement has refused to retreat.
In a statement yesterday by its National Director-General, John Ozyl Ughulu, the group reaffirmed that its campaign council remained ‘valid and operational’ despite the positions expressed by the NDC leadership and Obi.
‘The OK Movement wishes to reaffirm, unequivocally, that its position remains unchanged. The Presidential Campaign Council structure already constituted and announced by the OK Movement remains valid and operational, irrespective of the position or opinion of any individual leader of the party or presidential candidate,’ Ughulu said.
The group maintained that its independent status meant its internal structures did not require the approval of NDC officials.
‘We have stated clearly and consistently that the OK Movement is an independent political organisation,’ it said.
‘Accordingly, its existence, internal structure, leadership decisions and organisational mechanisms do not require the validation or approval of the National Leader of the NDC Party, HE Senator Seriake Dickson, or any other individual within the party leadership.’
The movement said its members were drawn from different political parties but were united by their support for Obi and Kwankwaso.
It also rejected the suggestion that its campaign council amounted to an attempt to supplant the NDC.
‘The OK Movement has never claimed superiority over the NDC Party,’ it said, stressing that the NDC was a political party with its constitutional structures while the OK Movement was an independent organisation with its own principles, values and organisational framework.
Ughulu further argued that neither the NDC nor its presidential candidate had exclusive authority over the internal organisation of an independent movement.
‘There is no provision of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, nor any provision of the NDC Party Constitution brought to our attention, that automatically vests exclusive authority in a political party or its candidate to determine the internal organisational structure of an independent political organisation,’ the statement said.
The group said it would continue to mobilise for the NDC candidates but would not surrender its national, state, local government and ward structures to the party.
It also insisted that its position was not motivated by confrontation.
‘Our position is not about confrontation. It is about clarity, institutional respect and the protection of organisational independence,’ it said.
The OK Movement said it was prepared to work with the NDC but would not accept what it described as attempts to subordinate or dismantle its structures.
‘If the party chooses to work with the principles, values and structures of the OK Movement, we remain prepared to engage constructively.
‘However, the movement cannot be compelled to abandon its principles or organisational identity in order to satisfy the ambitions or preferences of any individual or group,’ it said.
The latest development places Obi himself squarely on the side of the NDC leadership in the dispute, after the presidential candidate explicitly disowned the campaign council and affirmed the party’s authority over the formal campaign structure.
The OK Movement, however, has maintained that its support for the NDC ticket and its independent organisational identity can coexist.
The dispute has consequently shifted from a disagreement over a campaign council to a broader contest over how independent political movements supporting the NDC ticket will relate to the party as the 2027 election campaign takes shape.