2027: OK Movement Reacts Strongly To NDC Campaign Council List

The Obi-Kwankwaso (OK) Movement has launched a scathing attack on the leadership of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) following the unveiling of its National Campaign Council, openly questioning the party’s electoral readiness for the 2027 general elections and boasting superior grassroots mobilization machinery.

In a press statement issued on Monday in Abuja, the Director-General of the OK Movement, John Ughulu, criticized the NDC for delaying the inauguration of its campaign structure, warning that high-profile political names without solid grassroots coordination cannot deliver electoral success.

Ughulu asserted that the movement had completed extensive organizational groundwork while the party delayed, predicting that many prominent figures appointed to the NDC council would ultimately rely on the movement’s extensive structure.

The funny part of this list is that 90 per cent of the people on it will still come knocking on the doors of the OK Movement to beg for the very structure they have failed to build themselves! Ughulu declared.

With less than three months to the general elections, they are only just announcing their Presidential Campaign Council. What exactly have they been doing all this time? Where is the structure? Where is the strategy? Where is the machinery required to prosecute a serious national election? he queried.

The fierce exchange marks a deepening rift between the NDC and the OK Movement regarding organizational autonomy and control over the campaign structure for presidential candidate Peter Obi and his running mate, Rabiu Kwankwaso.

The conflict intensified after the NDC announced its campaign lineup on Sunday, appointing former Bayelsa State Governor Senator Seriake Dickson as Council Chairman and Peter Obi as Co-Chairman, while omitting Ughulu and all state, local government, and ward coordinators of the OK Movement.

The deliberate exclusion follows sharp friction over the OK Movement’s decision to operate its own parallel presidential campaign council—a move Senator Dickson previously dismissed as unheard of and nonsensical, insisting support groups must remain auxiliary to the party structure.

Rejecting the party’s attempt to subsume his group, Ughulu reiterated that the OK Movement operates as an independent political force across all administrative levels and will not surrender its polling unit networks.

Elections are not won by titles, press releases, political noise, or the number of big names on a campaign council. Elections are won through grassroots mobilisation, effective coordination, strategic planning, committed people, and a well-established structure that reaches every polling unit, he stated.

We did not wait for the election to approach before recognising the importance of grassroots organisation. We understood from the beginning that a presidential ambition without a functional grassroots structure is nothing more than a political wish! Ughulu added.

He further posed a challenge to party executives who previously derided the movement: But the question is: Will they respect the structure they are now coming to depend on?

The confrontation comes as the NDC prepares to formally inaugurate its National Campaign Council, unveil its newly acquired national secretariat in Abuja, and present Certificates of Return to its candidates ahead of its third National Executive Committee meeting and dinner on Monday.

Firmly rejecting any secondary role, Ughulu concluded: Leadership is not about who makes the loudest noise. Leadership is about who prepares, organises, builds, and delivers when it matters most. The OK Movement is ready. The question is: are they? Nigeria will be OK.