The Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) has drawn a clear line between the party’s official structure and the activities of the Obi-Kwankwaso (OK) Movement, rejecting a 59-member Presidential Campaign Council unveiled by the support group ahead of the 2027 general election.
The controversy centres on who has the authority to establish campaign structures for the party’s presidential ticket of Peter Obi and Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso.
While the OK Movement presented its 59-member council as a nationwide mobilisation platform for the ticket, NDC National Chairman, Senator Cleopas Moses, said the structure was not authorised by the party and should not be regarded as an official NDC organ.
Moses, in a statement issued on Saturday, maintained that the power to constitute and announce a Presidential Campaign Council rests exclusively with the party leadership.
He warned members, candidates and support groups against creating or announcing structures in the name of the NDC without prior approval from the National Working Committee (NWC).
The chairman also stressed that candidates contesting under the NDC platform remain subject to the authority and discipline of the party, regardless of the activities of affiliated support groups.
The development effectively places the OK Movement’s recently unveiled campaign structure outside the formal organisational framework recognised by the party.
The council announced by the movement included coordinators across the six geopolitical zones, the Federal Capital Territory and the 36 states, alongside directors overseeing areas such as mobilisation, women’s affairs, strategy, security and legal affairs.
John Ughulu, Director-General of the OK Movement, was named Director-General of the proposed campaign council, while National Secretary Saadatu Sani was designated as secretary.
However, the NDC said support groups could work with the party but must not present themselves as parallel or alternative party structures.
Moses further disclosed that Ughulu would be referred to the appropriate disciplinary organ over what he described as his conduct during the party’s primary election in Lagos State and what he termed repeated disregard for party authority.
The dispute highlights an emerging organisational question ahead of the 2027 election: how independent support movements backing the Obi-Kwankwaso ticket will operate alongside the formal structures of the political party under which the candidates are contesting.
The OK Movement has described its objective as mobilising Nigerians around the prospect of a “better, more prosperous, united and functional Nigeria,” but the NDC’s latest position makes clear that any campaign machinery operating in the party’s name must receive formal approval from its leadership.
