By Luminous Jannamike
The significance of the recent engagements between the US linked International Republican Institute, IRI, and two opposition parties lies less in the courtesies exchanged than in the messages each chose to put before the same international election assessment mission.
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At the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, national headquarters in Abuja, National Chairman Abdulrahman Mohammed presented a party that was ‘fully ready’ for the 2027 general election. Two days later, at the African Democratic Congress, ADC, National Chairman David Mark was speaking about something else: the conditions under which that election would be fought, insisting that it must not become a ‘war or a do-or-die affair’.
PDP’s message: We are still standing
Mohammed’s pitch was built around structure, reach and voters. Receiving the IRI delegation at Wadata House, he stressed that the PDP remained a nationwide organisation with structures across the 36 states, the Federal Capital Territory and the 774 local government areas.
“But I want to assure you that the PDP is fully ready for the election,” he said.
It was more than a declaration of preparedness. By emphasising the party’s nationwide spread, Mohammed was putting organisational weight behind the PDP’s claim to continued political relevance.
His choice of Osun as supporting evidence was equally revealing. The recent governorship election, he argued, had demonstrated that Nigerians were willing to participate when given the opportunity to choose their leaders.
“You can attest with the outcome of the election,” Mohammed told the IRI team, pointing to the turnout and determination of Osun voters to make their choice.
ADC changes the question
Mark took a different view of the same political landscape.
The message was telling: the PDP was not merely describing its preparations; it was asserting that the party still possesses the national reach expected of a major opposition force. For the ADC, the emphasis was different: whether citizens could trust the electoral process itself.
There was little emphasis on party machinery or organisational reach when he received the IRI delegation. Instead, the former Senate President focused on the rules of the contest: peaceful elections, free choice, institutional neutrality and protection against manipulation.
“Elections should not be treated as war or a do-or-die affair,” Mark warned, arguing that citizens should be allowed to choose their leaders without violence, intimidation, manipulation or abuse of state institutions.
For the ADC chairman, the credibility of the 2027 election was ‘non-negotiable’
The PDP is presenting itself as an established political structure with the reach and capacity to contest nationally. The ADC, meanwhile, is using the language of electoral integrity to define the kind of opposition politics it wants to represent.
Both messages are aimed at a political constituency that will ultimately decide which party or platform can best carry the opposition challenge into 2027.
Osun exposes the fault line
The recently concluded Osun governorship election brings that difference into sharper focus.
For Mohammed, Osun demonstrated voter participation. For Mark, it demonstrated the dangers that could undermine an election if violence and intimidation become part of the process.
Mark referred to reports that no fewer than 30 people were killed in connection with the recently concluded election, using the episode to underline his warning that elections must not be reduced to contests in which political actors fight for victory at any cost.
The PDP can point to citizens who turned out to vote. The ADC can point to the circumstances surrounding that vote. One emphasises the willingness of Nigerians to participate; the other emphasises the need to protect that participation from forces that could distort it.
The same election has therefore become evidence for two competing political narratives.
IRI listens, but does not choose
And hovering over both arguments is the IRI mission.
African Regional Director Jenai Cox explained that the organisation was consulting political and other stakeholders to understand the pre-election period, preparations by political parties and issues that could require attention ahead of 2027.
The mission had also observed the Osun election and visited Ekiti, while its delegation included IRI President Dan Twining and former US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Jendayi Frazier.
Cox made no endorsement of either party’s interpretation. She said the mission would present preliminary findings and recommendations to stakeholders after considering its meetings and observations.
That gives the separate meetings a wider significance. Mohammed and Mark were not addressing precisely the same questions, but both were placing their political narratives before an organisation assessing the environment in which the 2027 election will be held.
The opposition question behind the meetings
For the PDP, the message was one of continuity and capacity: despite the turbulence surrounding Nigeria’s opposition politics, it remains a party with national structures and an established claim to the electorate.
For the ADC, the emphasis was different: opposition politics must also be about the credibility of the process through which power is contested and transferred.
The contrast points to a larger struggle within Nigeria’s opposition space. Organisational machinery matters. So do alliances. But so does the credibility of the electoral ground on which those structures will operate.
The question hanging over the consultations is whether 2027 will be shaped by political machinery or by credibility, and which opposition platform can make the stronger case to Nigerians.
What the separate encounters with IRI show is that the parties are already making different cases for why their version of opposition politics deserves attention.
The louder battles of 2027 are still ahead. The quieter one over structures, narratives, credibility and who speaks for the opposition is already under way.
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