Monkey Works, Baboon Shares – ADC, the Chameleon that Forgot to Look Before Leaping
By EMAMEH GABRIEL
There is an old African parable. The monkey works all day, climbing trees and bending branches, sweating under the sun to gather fruits. When evening comes, the baboon arrives, climbs down from its resting place, and announces that it will now share the harvest. The monkey asks, 'What did you do?' The baboon answers, 'I watched. And watching is work.'
Another parable. The chameleon that wants to leap from one branch to another does not close its eyes. It measures the distance, tests the wind, looks twice at the branch ahead. But if it still falls, it cannot blame the tree.
The African Democratic Congress (ADC) is both the baboon and the chameleon. It did no work. It watched others build. Then it jumped—not walked, not crawled, but lunged—into a leadership takeover with the desperation of a debtor fleeing his creditors. And now that it has landed flat on its back, legs kicking at the air, its leaders are not looking at the cracked branch they grabbed. They are blaming the wind, the sky, the tree, and the man who planted the forest.
Let us call this piece by its true name: a lament for a group of politicians that traded the constitution of a political party for convenience, its rules for impunity, and now wants the nation to weep alongside them.
Just recently, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) did what any law-abiding agency ought to do. It spoke clearly, without ambiguity, without fear or favour. It said: We cannot recognizse any faction of the African Democratic Congress because a recent court judgment has tied our hands. That judgment, from the Court of Appeal, ordered all parties to maintain status quo ante bellum—the state of things exactly as they existed before the war began.
For the avoidance of doubt, let us respect the men and women involved. Professor Amupitan, the INEC Chairman, is not a village scribe who learned law by correspondence. He is a teacher of law. A Professor of Law. A Senior Advocate of Nigeria. When a man of that stature invokes a Latin legal maxim, it is not for theatrical effect. It is because the law bends to no man's ambition—not even that of a former Senate President who once presided over the National Assembly for eight years.
Senator David Mark, Mr. Peter Obi, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, and Mr. Bolaji Abdullahi are certainly accomplished politicians. They have held high offices. They have signatures on important documents. They have followers who cheer them at every turn. But they cannot teach Professor Yakubu what status quo ante bellum means. That would be like a fisherman trying to instruct a whale on the tides. It is not merely presumptuous. It is absurd.
So why the wailing? Why the press conferences in orange shirts and long faces, looking like mourners at a funeral of their own making? Why the frantic conspiracy theories about President Bola Tinubu and the All Progressives Congress (APC)? Why the desperate accusation that INEC has been weaponised by the ruling party?
Simple. The ADC leadership did not do their homework. They did not read their own party constitution. They did not respect their own succession rules. They acted as if the law was a suggestion and the court was a rumour. And now they are suffering from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, crying loudly that the bullet came from Aso Rock.
Let us rewind the tape.
On July 2, 2025, Ralph Nwosu resigned as National Chairman of the ADC at the Yar'Adua Conference Centre in Abuja. On that same day, he handed over the leadership to Senator David Mark. Something changed hands. A baton passed. A transaction occurred. Let no one deny that.
But here is the rub. The ADC constitution, like any serious political party's constitution in a democracy, does not permit strangers to walk in off the street and claim the throne. There are conditions. There are waiting periods. There are financial membership requirements that must be satisfied for at least one year before any person can assume leadership. These are not suggestions. They are fences. Jump them, and you bleed.
Enter Mr. Nafiu Bala Gombe, the Deputy National Chairman. He said he never resigned. He said the resignation letter dated May 18, 2025, was forged. He claimed all his official communications were conducted on the official letterhead of his office—not on plain paper, not on a torn sheet, not on a napkin. And he insisted that the constitution is crystal clear: when the national chairman vacates office, the deputy national chairman takes over. Not a newcomer. Not a "powerful man" who just arrived from Abuja. Not a former Senate President, however respected. The deputy.
But because Senator David Mark and his group are not men who build political parties from the ground up—they are men who think they can buy or hijack existing structures—they proceeded as if Bala Gombe did not exist. They shared national offices among themselves like a late-night poker game. Minister of this. Chairman of that. Spokesperson for the other. They forgot that in law and in party politics, procedure is not a nuisance. It is the backbone.
And then came the most telling detail. Nineteen days after resigning—nineteen days after he had ceased to be national chairman—Ralph Nwosu was reportedly called back to write INEC claiming that Bala Gombe had resigned back in May. Think about that carefully. A former chairman, after handing over, after stepping down, returns to his former office to write an official letter as if nothing had changed.
That is the culture of impunity dressed in isiagu and speaking good English.
Chinua Achebe wrote in The Trouble with Nigeria: "One of the truest tests of leadership is the ability to recognise a problem before it becomes an emergency." The ADC leadership failed that test spectacularly. They saw the problem, a legitimate deputy chairman with a credible case and court papers to prove it—and they ignored him. They walked past him. They told themselves that money and connections would silence him. Now the emergency is here, and they are pointing fingers at Tinubu.
The Court Did Not Sleep; The ADC Did
Let us listen to the lawyers who have no stake in this shameful drama. They speak not as politicians but as officers of the court.
Inibehe Effiong, a public interest and human rights lawyer of considerable repute, said the Mark faction took an "unusual" and "untidy" legal route. Instead of filing processes in opposition at the trial court—which is what normal litigants do when they are sued—they rushed to an interlocutory appeal. That is like setting your own house on fire and then suing the fire department for arriving late. It makes no sense unless your goal is confusion, not resolution.
Bodunde Opeyemi, another legal practitioner, traced the dispute to its logical roots. The Court of Appeal in March 2026 gave a directive so clear that even a first-year law student could understand it: maintain status quo ante bellum. That means revert to the ADC before Nwosu resigned. Before the handover to Mark. Before any faction took any action. Before any orange shirt was sewn.
In plain English: nobody moves. Nobody parades as chairman. Nobody writes INEC as if they own the party. Nobody holds a convention. Everyone returns to their corners until the High Court delivers a final judgment. That is what "status quo ante bellum" means. It is not poetry. It is an instruction from a court of law.
INEC is not being wicked. INEC is not being political. INEC is being lawful. The Commission said it will not participate in ADC congresses or conventions until the court speaks. That is not a conspiracy. That is obedience to the rule of law. Professor Amupitan did not spend decades climbing the academic and professional ladder—from teacher of law to Professor to Senior Advocate—to throw it all away by violating a binding court order just to please David Mark or any other politician.
George Orwell wrote in Animal Farm: "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others." The ADC leadership seems to believe they are above court orders. They said publicly that they will go ahead with their congresses and conventions whether INEC observes them or not. Let them go ahead. Without INEC recognition, they are merely hosting a catered lunch with a banner. No elected officials. No legitimacy. No local government chairmen. No state assembly candidates. Just orange shirts, long faces, and empty chairs.
The Real Enemy Is In the Mirror
This is the culture that ruined the ADC long before David Mark arrived. Impunity. Disregard for internal rules. The belief that power and money can bend any provision, skip any procedure, and silence any opposition.
The ADC did not fall because of APC. It did not fall because of Tinubu. It did not fall because INEC has a personal grudge against former Senate Presidents. It fell because its own leaders refused to read their own constitution. They forgot—or chose to ignore—the section that requires financial membership for at least one year before assuming leadership. They forgot that a deputy national chairman is not a piece of furniture you throw out when a bigger name walks in. They forgot that in a constitutional democracy, even a political party is bound by its own rulebook.
Now, instead of looking inward—instead of admitting, "We made a procedural mistake. We acted in haste. We did not consult the constitution. We assumed the court would rubber-stamp us"—their online supporters are pontificating on social media, raising false alarms, and accusing the President of sabotage.
Let me be blunt. It is bad politics for the ADC to make their internal crisis of choice a problem of Professor Amupitan, that of President Tinubu, and that of APC. The same people who could not form a political party from scratch—the way Buhari and Tinubu did when they chased the PDP from power through the ballot box—are now crying wolf. The same people who specialize in "taking over" rather than "building" are now shocked that the law does not respect takeovers.
James Baldwin wrote: "Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced." The ADC leadership must face this truth: they failed their homework. They acted like the court was an optional suggestion. They handed over a party like a parcel at a bus stop without checking the registry. And now they are reaping the whirlwind.
A Word to the Wailing Ones
Senator David Mark, you are a former Senate President. You know how the Senate rules operate. You know what happens when a senator ignores the rules of the chamber. Why would a political party be any different?
Stop blaming INEC. Stop blaming Tinubu. Stop blaming APC. Go back to the High Court. Argue your case. If the court rules in your favour, fine. If it does not, accept it like democrats. But do not hold a press conference in orange shirts and expect Nigerians to believe that the Professor of Law at INEC is your enemy. He is not your enemy. Your own carelessness is.
As the Igbo say: "Onye na-akpu mmiri na-akpu maka onwe ya, o naghi akpu maka onye ozo." He who digs a well digs for himself, not for another. The ADC dug this well. Let them drink from it—or fill it back with humility.
As the Yoruba also say: "A kii fi owo otun bo owo osi, ki a ma ri eni ti o nsa." You cannot use your right hand to cover your left hand and claim you cannot see who is running away.
The monkey worked. The baboon watched. The chameleon jumped and fell. And now the ADC wants us to believe that the tree moved.
Until the court speaks finally, spare us the conspiracy theories. The only war "ante bellum" here is the war the ADC declared on its own constitution. And they are losing badly.
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