Dumebi Kachikwu, the 2023 presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), has accused northern political elites of pushing former President Goodluck Jonathan to run in the 2027 presidential election. According to Kachikwu, the move is aimed at weakening the chances of President Bola Tinubu, Labour Party’s Peter Obi, and other southern contenders.
Speaking during a press conference in Abuja on Friday night, August 8, Kachikwu claimed that certain leaders within the ADC coalition had told Peter Obi he had little chance of winning northern support as an Igbo man, urging him instead to accept a vice-presidential slot under Atiku Abubakar, the 2023 PDP presidential candidate.
He further alleged that the ADC’s legal team had filed petitions against what he described as the “unlawful takeover” of the party by former Senate President David Mark and ex-Interior Minister Rauf Aregbesola, whom he accused of working to advance Atiku’s political ambitions.
Kachikwu said the opposition coalition, unveiled on July 1, has already seen growing divisions between the North and South-East. He accused some northern leaders of spreading falsehoods against southern candidates and consistently criticising Tinubu’s administration, not out of principle but political calculation.
He also claimed that Jonathan was being positioned as a “compromise” southern candidate, in a bid to draw Peter Obi into supporting him by allegedly offering him the role of Coordinating Minister of the Economy.
In all of this, it’s Nigerians who lose, because merit has been completely sidelined, Kachikwu said.
Atiku Abubakar and a few northern elites, who have held power for decades but failed to address poverty and undereducation in the North, are up to the same old tricks. Kachikwu urged Nigerians to reject Atiku and his allies, accusing them of lacking integrity and turning the ADC coalition into what he described as “a one-man power grab.”
In response, Atiku’s media aide, Paul Ibe, dismissed the allegations, calling Kachikwu “an agent of Tinubu’s APC.” Ibe described Atiku as a detribalised Nigerian who does not judge by ethnicity or religion and blamed the Tinubu administration for the current economic hardships.
ADC National Publicity Secretary Bolaji Abdullahi also defended the party, stating that the coalition was built on a “solid legal foundation” and challenged anyone with evidence of wrongdoing to come forward.