The Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), formerly known as Action Congress (AC), was a Nigerian political party formed via the merger of a faction of Alliance for Democracy, the Justice Party, the Advance Congress of Democrats, and several other minor political parties in September 2006. The party controlled Lagos. It was regarded as a natural successor to the progressive politics more closely associated with the Action Group and Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) led by 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, has made many argue it was less of a worthy political heir. The Party had strong presence in the South West (5 Governors, 15 Senators and 6 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 discernible power base. In February 2013 the party merged with the Congress for Progressive Change, the All Nigeria Peoples Party, and the All Progressives Grand Alliance to form the All Progressives Congress. 2006 The party was formed in 2006 in order to form a larger political opposition to the federally dominant centrist People's Democratic Party 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 succeeded Hassan M. Zurmi as National Chairman, and Bashir Dalhatu replaced Bumi Omoseyindemi as National Secretary. 2007 The party ran Vice President Atiku Abubakar, who defected from the People's Democratic Party, as its presidential candidate in the 2007 presidential election. Abubakar was disqualified from the election by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), but the disqualification was later overturned by the Supreme Court. Currently, the party's most prominent elected official was former member, Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State. Also very prominent in the party was 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. In the 21 April 2007 Nigerian