The OK Movement is an independent political organisation. It is not a support group created as an appendage of any political party or another movement,”
By Deborah Hassan
365Daily – The Obi-Kwankwaso Movement, popularly known as the OK Movement, has rejected the position of the National Leader of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), Seriake Dickson, that support groups should not establish parallel campaign structures to those of the political party.
The movement insisted that it was an independent political organisation and that its collaboration with the NDC over the Peter Obi-Rabiu Kwankwaso ticket did not amount to organisational subordination.
Dickson had said support groups should focus on grassroots mobilisation and support for candidates rather than compete with the political party sponsoring them.
“Support groups don’t compete with the political party that is sponsoring candidates. Support groups don’t compete for supremacy, for space. Support groups are what they are: support,” Dickson said.
But in a statement on Wednesday, the National Director-General of the OK Movement, Hon. John Ozyl Ughulu, said the movement was fundamentally different from ordinary support groups.
“For the avoidance of doubt, the OK Movement is an independent political organisation. It is not a support group created as an appendage of any political party or another movement,” Ughulu said.
He said the movement comprised members of different political parties united by their support for Obi and Kwankwaso, the NDC’s presidential and vice-presidential candidates.
Ughulu also rejected Dickson’s description of the establishment of an independent campaign council as “nonsensical.”
“So it is not nonsensical as claimed by His Excellency Seriake Dickson. Rather, the National Leader of the NDC Party should come to reality that politics has long evolved from the conventional political system he is used to,” he said.
According to him, the OK Movement would retain control of its national, state, local government and ward structures.
“The OK Movement will not be collapsed, merged or subsumed into the NDC Party or any other organisation. Cooperation and political alignment do not extinguish the independent identity of the Movement,” he said.
Ughulu said the movement had the right to establish its own campaign and mobilisation structures in support of the NDC candidates.
“The Movement has the legitimate organisational right to establish its own campaign structure and strategy. We are not aware of any provision of the NDC Party constitution that expressly prohibits an independent political organisation from establishing its own campaign council or mobilisation structure in support of the party’s candidates,” he said.
He, however, stressed that the movement was not seeking to usurp the authority of the NDC, stating, “The OK Movement does not claim supremacy over the NDC Party, nor does it seek to usurp the constitutional powers of the party.”
He described the relationship between both organisations as political collaboration rather than control which should “therefore be understood as political collaboration, not organisational subordination.”
Ughulu said the movement would continue to mobilise, campaign and defend votes cast for Obi and Kwankwaso in the 2027 election.
“We will not be intimidated. We will not surrender our identity. We will not abandon the structures we have built,” he said.