By Sandra Kenneth
The rift between the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) and the Obi-Kwankwaso Movement, popularly known as the OK Movement, widened on Wednesday as the group firmly rejected calls to collapse its organisation into the party ahead of the 2027 general elections.
Speaking in response to critical remarks by NDC National Leader, Senator Seriake Dickson, the Director-General of the OK Movement, John Ughulu, declared that the group would not surrender its national, state, local government, or ward structures to the NDC or any other political entity.
The confrontation follows the NDC’s recent decision to disown a 59-member presidential campaign council created by the OK Movement to mobilize support for the party’s presidential candidate, Peter Obi, and his running mate, Rabiu Kwankwaso. Dickson had earlier described the movement’s establishment of an independent campaign council as “unheard of” and “nonsensical,” insisting that political support groups must operate within party structures rather than setting up parallel machinery.
Firing back on Wednesday, Ughulu rejected the classification of the OK Movement as a conventional support group or party appendage.
“For the avoidance of doubt, the OK Movement is not a support group created as an appendage of any political party or another movement. It is independently organized, managed, and structured through its own established mechanisms,” Ughulu said.
Dismissing Dickson’s criticisms, the Director-General noted that modern political mobilization has evolved beyond traditional party boundaries, adding that the group draws members from multiple political parties who unite specifically around the Obi-Kwankwaso ticket.
“It is not nonsensical as claimed by Seriake Dickson; rather, the national leader of the NDC should come to realize that politics has long evolved from the conventional political system he is used to,” Ughulu asserted. “The OK Movement remains an independent organization. Cooperation and political alignment do not extinguish the independent identity of the movement.”
While clarifying that the group respects the constitutional authority of the NDC and does not seek supremacy over the party, Ughulu issued a strong warning against any attempt by party leaders to absorb or dissolve the movement’s grassroots framework.
“We will resist, through lawful and democratic means, any attempt by any individual or group to disenfranchise members of the movement, appropriate its structures, or unilaterally redefine its identity,” he warned. “We did not build the OK Movement overnight… We will not be intimidated, surrender our identity, or abandon the structures we have built.”
