Action Congress
Encyclopedia
The Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), formerly known as Action Congress (AC), is a classical liberal
Classical liberalism
Classical liberalism is the philosophy committed to the ideal of limited government, constitutionalism, rule of law, due process, and liberty of individuals including freedom of religion, speech, press, assembly, and free markets....

 Nigerian political party formed via the merger of the Alliance for Democracy
Alliance for Democracy (Nigeria)
The Alliance for Democracy was a progressive opposition political party in Nigeria. It was formed on September 9th 1998. At the 2003 legislative elections, 12 April 2003, the party won 8.8 % of the popular vote and 34 out of 360 seats in the Nigerian House of Representatives and six out of...

, the Justice Party
Justice Party
Justice Party is the name of several different political parties around the world:*Indian Justice Party*Justice Party *Justice Party *Justice Party *Justice Party *Justice Party *Justice Party...

, the Advance Congress of Democrats, and several other minor political parties in September 2006. The party controls the most populous and richest state in Nigeria, Lagos. It is regarded as a natural successor to progressive politics more closely associated with Action Group and UPN, Chief Obafemi Awolowo in the First and Second Republics respectively. However, criticism of the party's more pragmatic and less ideological political outlook associated with AG and UPN, have many argue it is less of a worthy political heir. The Party has strong presence in the South West (3 Governor, 3 Senators and 2 State Houses), Mid-West (1 Governor) and North Central Regions (3 Senators). Lagos, Edo, Ekiti, Kogi, Ondo, Bauchi, Plateau, Niger, Adamawa, Oyo and Osun states by far accounts for majority of the party's presence and discernable power base.

2006

The party was formed in 2006 in order to form a larger political opposition to the federally-dominant centrist People's Democratic Party
People's Democratic Party (Nigeria)
The People's Democratic Party is a political party in Nigeria. Its policies generally lie towards the right wing of the political spectrum. It has won every single Presidential elections since 1999, namely: 1999, 2003, 2007, and 2011, and is the dominant party in the Fourth Republic.-History:In...

 and the Northern-based All Nigeria Peoples Party. On May 12, 2006, the provisional officers of the party (most of whom carried their seats from the Alliance for Democracy) were replaced at the Kaduna convention by ballot; Bisi Akande
Adebisi Akande
Abdukareem Adebisi Bamidele Akande was a governor of Osun State, Nigeria from 1999-2003, as a member of the Alliance for Democracy party, and is Chairman of the Action Congress party.-Background:...

 succeeded Hassan M. Zurmi as National Chairman, and Bashir Dalhatu replaced Bumi Omoseyindemi as National Secretary.

2007

The party ran Vice President
Vice President of Nigeria
The Vice President of Nigeria is the second-in-command to the President of Nigeria in the Government of Nigeria. Officially styled Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.The Vice President is elected alongside the President in national elections...

 Atiku Abubakar
Atiku Abubakar
Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, alias Turakin Adamawa, GCON was the Vice-President of Nigeria from 1999 to 2007. He is a Muslim native of Adamawa State, and was an influential member of the ruling People's Democratic Party until 2006 when he switched affiliation to the Action Congress party...

, who defected from the People's Democratic Party
People's Democratic Party (Nigeria)
The People's Democratic Party is a political party in Nigeria. Its policies generally lie towards the right wing of the political spectrum. It has won every single Presidential elections since 1999, namely: 1999, 2003, 2007, and 2011, and is the dominant party in the Fourth Republic.-History:In...

, as its presidential candidate in the 2007 presidential election
Nigerian general election, 2007
The Nigerian general elections of 2007 were held on 14 April and 21 April 2007. Governorship and state assembly elections were held on 14 April, while the presidential and national assembly elections were held a week later on 21 April. Umaru Yar'Adua won the highly controversial election for the...

. Abubakar was disqualified from the election by the Independent National Electoral Commission, but the disqualification was later overturned by the Supreme Court. Currently, the party's most prominent elected official is governor Babatunde Fashola
Babatunde Fashola
Babatunde Raji Fashola is the thirteenth governor of Lagos State, Nigeria. As a candidate of the Action Congress party, Fashola succeeded Bola Ahmed Tinubu, on April 14, 2007, and was sworn in on May 29, 2007....

 of Lagos State
Lagos State
Lagos State is an administrative division of Nigeria, located in the southwestern part of the country. The smallest in area of Nigeria's states, Lagos State is the most populous state in Nigeria and arguably the most economically important state of the country and west Africa, containing Lagos, the...

. Also very prominent in the party is the political brain behind the party, Asiwaju Ahmed Tinubu, the former Governor of Lagos State and erstwhile Senator in the Third Republica. Tinubu is noted for his astute Pro-Democracy credentials and progressive Federalist Principles that saw him clash severally with former President Olusegun Obasanjo of the more conservative unitarian school of thought.

The party was torn apart by in-house fighting that led prominent party Chieftain and Lagos State Gubernatorial Candidate, Femi Pedro
Femi Pedro
Olufemi Pedro was the Deputy Governor of Lagos State, Nigeria from 2003 until 2007. Prior to his election alongside Bola Tinubu, he was a part-owner and the Chief Executive Officer of First Atlantic Bank, now FinBank....

, to decamp to the Nigeria Labour Party. Pedro cited gross manipulation within the party structure favouring Tinubu's candidates in South-Western Nigeria as his reason for dumping the newly-formed Party.
Additionally, there have been rumours of cracks in the Party's initial alliance with the prominent national opposition party, the All Nigeria Peoples Party.

In the 21 April 2007 Nigerian National Assembly
Nigerian National Assembly
The National Assembly of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is a bicameral legislature established under section 4 of the Nigerian Constitution. It consists of a Senate and a 360-member House of Representatives...

 election
Nigerian general election, 2007
The Nigerian general elections of 2007 were held on 14 April and 21 April 2007. Governorship and state assembly elections were held on 14 April, while the presidential and national assembly elections were held a week later on 21 April. Umaru Yar'Adua won the highly controversial election for the...

, the party won 32 out of 360 seats in the House of Representatives and 6 out of 109 seats in the Senate.

Following the victory of PDP candidate Umaru Yar'Adua in the 2007 presidential election, the AC has been pursuing a legal challenge to the results. On July 6, 2007, the party announced its rejection of an offer to join Yar'Adua's government (an offer that was accepted by the ANPP and the Progressive Peoples Alliance
Progressive Peoples Alliance
The Progressive Peoples Alliance is a political party in Nigeria. Notable members of the party include Orji Uzor Kalu.The party won gubernatorial elections in 2003 and 2007 in Abia State. The party also won the governorship election in 2007 in Imo State...

), with a spokesman saying that "there is no compelling moral, legal or political reason for us to join a government that we have told the whole world stole its mandate" and that participating in the government would mean "partaking in stolen goods".

However, on August 7, 2007, the National Secretary, Bashir Dalhatu, resigned (along with two other officials) over the refusal of the Action Congress to take up Yar'adua's offer. He was replaced by the current Secretary, Usman Bugaje.

2008-2009

Most of the Party's success came in 2008 via judicial challenges to the widely maligned 2003 General Elections, that was judged to be rigged by international observers and even the ruling party in favor of the PDP. In 2008, the Party's candidate in Edo State, former Labor leader Comrade Adams Oshiomole won a decisive victory and took the mantle of power in that state. In Ekiti state, the Party's candidate- Dr. Fayemi, also emerged victorious over the PDP Candidate Engr. Oni in court, and secured a cancellation of results of 63 wards, with the Appeals Court ordering rerun. Heading into this rerun, AC had an over 12 000 votes advantage. The contention rerun is yet to be finalized. The current Acting Speaker of the Ekiti State House of Assembly (legislature) is an AC member. AC maintains a 1 seat majority in the Ekiti Legislature in the absence of the Acting Governor.

AC Governorship candidates still have cases pending in Osun, Oyo and Ogun states where analysts have given them better than even chance to secure a rerun or emerge outright victors. The Ekiti State Guber Rerun election also saw some form of alliance between the Labour Party Governor in Ondo State, Dr. Mimiko and the Action Congress under the perceived leadership of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.

2010

The Action Congress was recently changed to Action Congress of Nigeria. The March 2010 rerun of the Ekiti Guber polls resulted in PDP Candidate and Ex-Governor , Engineer Oni being returned as winner despite widespread allegations of voter intimidation, rigging and pressures on INEC officials to release the falsified result to favor the ruling party (PDP). AC Candidate proceeded to challenge these results at the Elections Tribunal, where he lost 3-2. Pinning his appeal on the minority judgement, he sought to be installed as Governor based on the cancellation of results from two local governments where PDP allegedly perpetrated fraud and violence. A ruling from the Appeal Court (the final adjudicator of governor elections disputes) on September 14, 2010 eventually returned Dr. Fayemi of Action Congress as the 3rd Executive Governor of Ekiti State after three and half years of protracted court battles and occupancy by the usurper PDP government in the state.

On November 26 2010, the AC Candidate in Osun State, Engr. Aregbesola was declared the duly elected governor of Osun State by the Court of Appeals sitting in Ibadan. This brings the number of AC seats recovered via the judicial process to four out of five states virtually controlled. Only one of those seats, is up for contest in the 2011 cycle i.e. Lagos State.

2011

Nigerian Civil engineer Adeola Agboola enters the race to become the president of Nigeria.

AC has four governors in Nigeria today: Lagos, Osun, Edo and Ekiti. The Labor Party Governor in Ondo State has been closely allied with the party.

The Action Congress of Nigeria has two major presidential aspirants contesting for the party ticket: The former chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Nuhu Ribadu
Nuhu Ribadu
Mallam Nuhu Ribadu is a former Nigerian government anti-corruption official. He was the pioneer Executive Chairman of Nigeria's Economic and Financial Crimes Commission , the government commission tasked with countering corruption and fraud...

, and former governor of Sokoto State, Attahiru Bafarawa.
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