A Federal High Court ruling that has nullified the registration of the Nigeria Democratic Congress has ignited a fierce political storm in Nigeria, with former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and his camp firing a sharp broadside at President Bola Tinubu’s administration, accusing it of engineering the systematic destruction of opposition politics ahead of the 2027 general elections.

The ruling, delivered on Friday, June 26, by Justice Isah Dashen of the Federal High Court sitting in Lokoja, Kogi State, set aside an earlier judgment from December 2025 that had directed the Independent National Electoral Commission to register the Nigeria Democratic Congress as a political party. The judge held that the earlier decision was constitutionally flawed because the Peace Movement Party which claimed ownership of the logo used to secure the original judgment had not been joined as a party in the initial proceedings. As a result, all actions taken by INEC in furtherance of that judgment, including the issuance of a certificate of registration and the inclusion of the NDC in its records, were effectively reversed. The court ordered a fresh hearing with all relevant parties properly included.

Reacting, Paul Ibe, media aide to Atiku Abubakar, described the ruling as a glaring demonstration of what he called the Tinubu administration’s deliberate campaign to establish a de facto one-party state in Nigeria. He warned that no opposition party was safe and urged leading opposition figures including Labour Party’s Peter Obi and NNPP’s Rabiu Kwankwaso to immediately set aside their differences and present a united front if they harboured any realistic hope of unseating the ruling All Progressives Congress in 2027.

Atiku himself has been consistent and vocal in his condemnation of what he describes as a broader pattern of judicial manipulation and institutional pressure being brought to bear on opposition parties. He accused the Tinubu administration of being more focused on crushing political rivals than on addressing the mounting challenges confronting ordinary Nigerians from rising insecurity and soaring unemployment to crippling inflation and a rapidly declining standard of living. He cautioned that when court orders are selectively honoured or conveniently set aside by those in power, the very foundation of the rule of law is imperilled.

The NDC crisis does not stand alone. In recent weeks, a separate Federal High Court in Abuja had ordered the deregistration of the African Democratic Congress and four other political parties for allegedly failing to meet constitutional requirements a ruling that sent shockwaves through the opposition and drew condemnation from civil society groups, the Nigerian Union of Journalists, and senior political figures including former Senate President David Mark, who now chairs the ADC. An appellate court subsequently intervened to halt that deregistration, offering the affected parties a temporary reprieve, though the controversy surrounding judicial independence in an election season has deepened significantly.

INEC, for its part, stated on Saturday that it had yet to receive the certified true copy of the Lokoja judgment and would reserve its formal position until it had studied the court’s decision in full. The electoral commission finds itself navigating turbulent legal waters, with conflicting court orders and mounting pressure from multiple directions testing its capacity to maintain credibility ahead of what promises to be a fiercely contested 2027 election season.

For the opposition, the message from Atiku and his allies is stark: unity is no longer optional. With multiple parties facing legal threats, court reversals, and what critics describe as state-driven institutional pressure, Nigeria’s political landscape is rapidly narrowing. Whether the fractured opposition can overcome its internal rivalries and coalesce around a common purpose before it is too late remains the defining political question as the country marches toward its next general election.