The National Chairman of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), Senator Moses Cleopas, has said the party will inaugurate its Presidential Campaign Council on October 20 as part of preparations for the 2027 general elections.
Cleopas disclosed this while addressing journalists on Saturday, saying the party had already developed the organogram for the campaign council and was consulting its presidential and vice-presidential candidates, Peter Obi and Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, on key appointments.
He said the delay in inaugurating the council was deliberate, stressing that the party wanted to ensure that the structure was properly constituted before the commencement of full-scale campaigns.
According to him, the NDC National Working Committee (NWC) had held a series of meetings since August and had submitted proposals on the campaign structure to the party’s leadership.
“It is better to get it right. It is a sensitive election that we are going into. And we must check characters,” he said.
Cleopas said the party would also use the October 20 meeting to issue certificates of return to its candidates and hold a dinner aimed at strengthening cooperation among candidates ahead of the elections.
He dismissed claims that the NDC had become inactive or was divided, saying the party’s presidential candidate and other candidates had continued consultations and town hall meetings across the country.
“We have been in Sokoto, we have been in Kaduna, on the 15th, we shall be in Enugu. So it is not to mean that we have not been working,” he said.
The NDC chairman also declared that the entire leadership of the party, from its National Leader, NWC, National Executive Committee (NEC), state chapters, local government chapters and ward structures, remained firmly behind all its candidates.
He described Obi and Kwankwaso as the best presidential and vice-presidential combination for the country, arguing that their ticket represented Nigeria’s religious, ethnic and generational diversity.
“Our presidential candidate and vice-presidential candidate today have the mandate of the party to lead us into political battle, on a rescue mission for this country,” Cleopas said.
He explained that the NWC could not unilaterally appoint key members of the presidential campaign council because the presidential and vice-presidential candidates were the individuals leading the election and their experience and networks were essential to the campaign.
Among the positions being considered, he listed Director-General of the campaign, Deputy Director-General, Director of Finance, Director of Mobilisation and spokesperson.
Cleopas further rejected allegations that NDC National Leader, Senator Seriake Dickson, was working with the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) or President Bola Tinubu against Obi’s presidential ambition.
He said Dickson had deliberately chosen not to contest the presidency and had instead provided the NDC platform for Obi and Kwankwaso to pursue their political ambitions.
He challenged those spreading the allegations to explain why Dickson would have relinquished the opportunity to contest the presidential election if he had intended to undermine the NDC’s presidential ticket.
“That’s benevolence. So if certain social media analysts today will be propagating negativity that Seriake Dickson, leader of NDC, is having a pact with APC, is working for Tinubu, is not supporting Peter Obi, do they even think if he wanted to play so, wouldn’t he have taken the presidential ticket from this party?” he asked.
The NDC chairman also called on the media to reject what he described as false propaganda against the party’s leadership, saying the country needed positive and factual information ahead of the 2027 elections.
On the party’s preparations for the elections, Cleopas disclosed that the NDC had commenced work on recruiting and training polling agents, drawing lessons from what he described as challenges encountered during the 2023 presidential election.
He said the party was activating its structures across the states to ensure that its agents were properly positioned to protect the party’s votes.
According to him, senatorial and House of Representatives candidates would work with stakeholders in their constituencies to nominate agents for federal elections, while governorship and House of Assembly candidates would coordinate similar efforts at the state level.
Cleopas said vote protection would be a major priority for the party in 2027, urging voters to remain at polling units until their votes were counted and properly transmitted through the electoral process.
“Voting alone is not it, but vote and protect your vote, and make sure that your vote gets to the point that it will be counted for,” he said.
He expressed confidence that the NDC had sufficient support to win the 2027 general elections, particularly among young Nigerians, whom he described as the largest voting bloc.
Cleopas said the party was deliberately building the NDC as an institution that would give young Nigerians greater opportunities to participate in politics and leadership.
He also urged all NDC candidates across the country to work closely with the party’s structures rather than running independent campaigns.
“There is no candidate that is running an independent campaign or an independent election,” he said, stressing that every candidate was a product of the party and must therefore work with its established structures.
Cleopas maintained that the NDC had candidates for the various elective positions across the country and that the candidates were already consulting with party structures ahead of the 2027 elections.
