There has been considerable misinformation about how the Action Congress (AC) emerged, particularly the claim that then Lagos State Governor Bola Ahmed Tinubu simply “donated his party” to then Vice President Atiku Abubakar to contest the 2007 presidential election.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
The AC was not Tinubu’s personal party. It emerged in 2006 from a political realignment involving the Tinubu-led faction of the Alliance for Democracy (AD), the Advanced Congress of Democrats (ACD), the Justice Party and other smaller groups, in the aftermath of the battle against President Olusegun Obasanjo’s third-term ambition.
On the AD side were figures including Tinubu, Chief Bisi Akande, Aremo Olusegun Osoba, Otunba Niyi Adebayo and Chief Adebayo Adefarati. On the ACD/PDP breakaway side were prominent figures including Atiku Abubakar, Audu Ogbeh, Lawal Kaita, Bashir Dalhatu, Gali Na’Abba and others.
Chief Bisi Akande, the pioneer National Chairman of the AC, put it succinctly in his autobiography: “In 2007, we formed a party, the AC with Abubakar Atiku.” He further disclosed that the understanding was for Atiku to be the presidential candidate, with Tinubu potentially as his running mate. That pairing did not materialise because Atiku was not inclined to a Muslim-Muslim ticket.
Chief Tom Ikimi’s account similarly describes the AC as a coalition of the PDP breakaway group and the AD faction—not a Tinubu party handed over to Atiku.
The claim that Atiku never reciprocated Tinubu’s political support is equally misleading. Atiku himself acknowledged his longstanding political relationship with Tinubu, dating back to the PDM era, and explained during the 2023 campaign that he remained true to that relationship.
That relationship had political consequences in 2003, when the PDP-led Obasanjo administration sought to sweep the AD out of the South-West. Lagos survived that political onslaught. Atiku has publicly spoken of his decision to stand by his friendship with Tinubu rather than support the effort to dislodge him.
So the history is not one of Tinubu simply giving Atiku a political platform and receiving nothing in return.
Atiku and Tinubu were political partners who exchanged political favours at different points. The AC itself was the product of a broader coalition and realignment—not Tinubu’s personal property donated to Atiku.
To reduce that complex history to a benefactor-beneficiary relationship is not merely an oversimplification; it is a distortion of the political record.
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