2023 ADC governorship candidate in Akwa Ibom endorses Tinubu

The 2023 governorship candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) in Akwa Ibom State, Ezekiel Nya-Etok, has announced his support for President Bola Tinubu in the 2027 elections.

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Mr Nya-Etok also said he would support Governor Umo Eno of Akwa Ibom and the Senate President Godswill Akpabio.

Messrs Tinubu, Akpabio, and Eno are all members of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Mr Nya-Etok, who now serves as the executive director of Estate Services at the Federal Housing Authority (FHA), announced this in a public statement issued on his Facebook page Friday morning, attributing his latest move to a “reasoned and performance-based” political decision.

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Mr Nya-Etok, an architect, was appointed to the FHA by President Tinubu on 16 February 2024. At the time of his appointment, he remained a member of the ADC.

According to him, he resigned from the ADC in July 2024, five months after assuming office, choosing to operate as a non-partisan public officer. He said he formally joined the APC in December 2025 after a “careful reflection” on the direction of governance under the Tinubu administration.

“I did not join immediately because I live by conviction. Every public decision I make must be one I can explain clearly, rationally, and respectfully to the people I serve,” he said in the statement.

Structured endorsement meeting

Mr Nya-Etok announced that he would convene a special political consultation meeting in Ikot Ekpene Local Government Area, Akwa Ibom, on 21 February 2026, to formally endorse President Tinubu for re-election, Governor Eno for a second term, and Mr Akpabio for the Ikot Ekpene Senatorial District seat.

He said the event would not be a conventional political rally but a structured town hall engagement involving invited delegates from across the 48 villages in Ikot Ekpene.

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He said the meeting will feature “clear, data-driven, performance-based reasons” for each endorsement, and participants will also be allowed to ask questions and engage in discussion before returning to their communities.

Shift in political identity

The ADC has been bolstered by the entry of the first and second runners-up in the 2023 presidential election—Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi—along with their supporters.

John Akpanudoedehe, a former senator and the 2023 governorship candidate of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) in Akwa Ibom, had resigned from the NNPP last year to join the ADC.

The ADC has grown to become a major opposition party in Nigeria.