Dumebi Kachikwu, the presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress in the 2023 election, has revealed that the objective of the opposition coalition is to present former Vice President Atiku Abubakar as president in 2027.
Kachikwu disclosed this in a media chat with journalists on Thursday.
According to him, the opposition coalition leaders are without ideology other than to grab power from the incumbent President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
“We had a meeting with the coalition. Everything they said is about President Bola Ahmed Tinubu having destroyed Nigeria. This is what is typical of every Nigerian.
“I had only one question for them. The question was, since we just had the first eight years of President Muhammadu Buhari and Tinubu has done one term. Do you agree that if there is a coalition, the South will produce the flag bearers of this coalition? The immediate response was that we are taking our power back.”
“The coalition is engineered to produce Atiku Abubakar as president.
“I still say this today: I am throwing a challenge to them that they should make a statement that the flagbearer of the coalition will be someone from the southern party of Nigeria so that the region will conclude their presidential. You will discover that this is the hardest thing for them to do. It is engineered to produce Atiku,” he stated.
His reaction comes as the ADC faction led by Raph Nwosu appointed David Mark, former Minister of Interior Rauf Aregbesola, as the National ADC interim party chairman and secretary.
It was also reported on Wednesday that a coalition of opposition led by former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, former Governor of Kaduna State Nasir El-Rufai, and former Governor of Rivers State Rotimi Amaechi backed ADC to unseat President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in 2027.