Democratic Leadership Alliance presidential candidate Moses Adebisi, 35, has declared his ambition to become Nigeria’s youngest president if elected in the 2027 general election, making the claim during an Arise TV interview on Thursday, August 27, 2026.
Adebisi, who described himself as a Harvard University PhD candidate in Government, Political Thought and History in the United States, said his decision to enter the presidential race followed calls from Nigerians who believed his community-based initiatives should be taken into national politics.
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“The presidential candidate of the DLA is the youngest presidential candidate or the incoming president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the youngest,” Adebisi said.
His emergence comes after the DLA conducted a substitution primary that formally positioned him as the party’s presidential candidate for the 2027 election.
The development followed the withdrawal of the party’s earlier candidate, Samuel M. Memeh.
The Independent National Electoral Commission officially registered the Democratic Leadership Alliance as a political party in February 2026 after the commission assessed 171 associations seeking registration.
INEC said 14 associations initially met the requirements to proceed, while eight submitted the required documents for further consideration.
The DLA was subsequently found to have met the legal requirements for registration.
Independent National Electoral Commission
For Adebisi, however, the presidential bid is an extension of work he says he had already begun outside conventional politics.
He recalled running empowerment programmes aimed at low-income market women and young Nigerians, as well as a grassroots digital literacy initiative established after the introduction of computer-based testing for the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board examinations.
According to Adebisi, his team supplied computers and volunteers to communities across Osun, Ekiti, Oyo, the South-West, North-Central and the Federal Capital Territory, where secondary school pupils received digital skills training.
Adebisi said those interventions eventually convinced him that social initiatives alone could not address Nigeria’s broader challenges.
“They beckon on me that you can’t stay in America and think you’re solving Nigeria’s problem,” he said.
The candidate said he subsequently travelled to China to study aspects of the country’s economic reforms, including the reforms launched in 1978.
He also said he examined the United States’ political and economic development as part of his preparation for public office.
That experience, Adebisi argued, has strengthened his belief that he can offer a different direction for Nigeria and mount a serious challenge to President Bola Tinubu and the ruling All Progressives Congress in 2027.
“The ship and the chariot of the oppressors is about to sink in this country,” Adebisi said, adding that he believed he had the capacity to defeat the Tinubu-led government at the election.
He also described the DLA’s political expansion as a “submarine approach”, saying the party had quietly built structures without attracting widespread attention.
“We have used our submarine approach to get into the system. They never see us coming, including yourself,” he said.
Adebisi’s political argument comes as the 2027 election approaches and a growing number of political actors position themselves for the contest.
The DLA is among the newer parties now preparing to compete at the national level after its registration by INEC.
The candidate has placed particular emphasis on Nigerian youths, calling on them to become more actively involved in determining the country’s political future.
For Adebisi, the central message is one of generational change.
At 35, he is seeking to turn his relatively young age into a political advantage while presenting his academic training, grassroots programmes and international exposure as evidence of his readiness for national leadership.
His ambition nevertheless faces the practical challenge of converting a new party’s emerging grassroots structure into nationwide electoral support in a presidential contest dominated by established political organisations.
Adebisi remains confident.
Rather than presenting his age as a limitation, the DLA candidate sees it as part of his appeal and argues that younger Nigerians should have a stronger voice in deciding who leads the country.
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With the 2027 presidential race gradually taking shape, Moses Adebisi’s campaign now faces the task of translating that bold promise into a credible nationwide political movement.
