Atiku does not believe in a southern president – Kachikwu

Former Presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Mr Dumebi Kachikwu, yesterday took a swipe at former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, accusing him and members of ADC coalition of dividing the party.

He also faulted the purported ambition of the former Vice President to contest on the ADC platform, saying Atiku does not believe in a southern president.

Addressing journalists in Abuja, Kachikwu urged the ADC coalition not to offer the party’s platform to Atiku for the 2027 presidential election. He insisted that the former VP and members of the coalition should not be allowed to hijack the party.

The former ADC presidential candidate also alleged that some state chairmen of the party were offered N20 million each to resign their positions.

He said: “This is a man whose antecedents clearly show he doesn’t believe anyone from the southern part of Nigeria deserves being president.

“Former Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, has shown that he doesn’t believe any other section of the country should produce the next president except himself. Atiku almost truncated Chief Obasanjo’s government. He is using charlatans to deceive Peter Obi into running as his vice-presidential candidate.

“I challenge Atiku to say that the presidency belongs to the South. I will reiterate that the ADC is not for sale. As a member of the party, I have a stake and will not allow strangers to hijack it. The so-called coalition members are not ADC members; they came to cause upheavals in the party.

“The presidency is not—and will never be—the birthright of any one section of this country, no matter how much propaganda they spread.

“There is a lot of deliberate misinformation being peddled by these agents of destabilization masquerading as a political coalition. There’s a clear difference between a political coalition and a political gang.

“The first has noble ideals, while the latter seeks power for personal gain. What we have here today is a gang, unable to survive outside political office, seeking to hijack the ADC as a means to revive their personal fortunes. They are truly on a rescue mission, but it is a mission to rescue themselves from the harsh economic realities they helped create for our nation.

“They accused me of being a paid spokesperson for President Tinubu. My response is this: It would be an honour to serve as a spokesperson for the president of the largest Black nation on earth, but unfortunately, that is not who I am.

“Political jobbers with no visible means of livelihood are always eager to tarnish others, but I remain unfazed.
“With the active support of their media cohorts, they now claim to be the ADC — but they are not. I can call myself the President of America until I’m blue in the face, but that doesn’t make it so.

“They are offering some state chairmen as much as N20 million to resign their positions, which clearly shows their intentions are not honourable.

“My question to this gang is: If you succeed in paying off all ADC party officials at the state and local government levels to resign, what next? Our constitution does not permit you to assume those offices. That is the plain and simple truth. Your money will get you nowhere in the ADC.

“If your rescue mission must be built on fraudulent misrepresentation, it only reveals your true character.

“The impostor who claims to be their spokesperson boldly declared that I am merely a former presidential candidate and not a party official. His pedestrian argument is that only party officials can comment on party affairs.

“This is the same elitist ignorance that has brought Nigeria to this point — where we believe the country belongs only to the rich and powerful.

“This fake coalition is staging events across the country where they pay poor Nigerians to claim they are decamping from other parties to the ADC. This is a typical tactic of these old politicians, and we have had enough. They need to sing a new song.

“This is most uncharitable of them. If the former Vice President insists that my assertions are untrue and claims he only wants a better Nigeria, then I challenge him today to publicly declare that equity demands the presidency should remain in the South for another six years. He can then support any southern candidate of his choice.

“He will never do this. But if he chooses to continue on this slippery slope, I reiterate that the ADC is not for sale and is not an old people’s home.

“We are a party that believes Nigeria needs fresh faces, fresh ideals, and fresh ideas.

“This current political war is a war of the old for the old — it is not our fight. In the ADC, Nigeria and Nigerians will always remain our priority.”