Opposition coalition, African Democratic Congress (ADC), has said that the decision of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC) to begin talks about zoning their 2027 presidential tickets two years before the election showed they don’t care about addressing the plights of Nigerians.
“The general election is still in 2027; it’s still two years away,” ADC spokesman, Bolaji Abdullahi, said on Channels Television’s The Morning Brief programme monitored by Core TV news on Tuesday. “Why are we so preoccupied and behaving in such a way that Nigerians begin to look at the political elite across the political divides that we don’t care about them?” he queried. On Monday, the PDP at its National Executive Council (NEC) meeting in Abuja zoned the party’s 2027 presidential ticket to the southern region of Nigeria, and retained its chairmanship in the north.
Earlier in May, 22 governors of the ruling APC and some powerful organs of the ruling party adopted President Bola Tinubu, who is a southerner, as the sole candidate of the party for the 2027 election.
Both the PDP and the APC said their decisions aligned with the eight-year unwritten rule of power rotation between the southern and northern regions of the country. However, the ADC coalition with members like former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, ex-Labour Party flag bearer Peter Obi and ex-minister Rotimi Amaechi, faulted the decision of the APC and, of late, the PDP.
ADC spokesman Abdullahi said the PDP was playing a game. “Why are they taking the decision two years before the general election?” he asked. “They are very experienced people, and they know the implications of showing their way too early. So, it’s either they are playing the predetermined game or batting some people to come around because they’ve been shopping around for who to be the presidential candidate of the party,” he stated.
Abdullahi said the ADC has several qualified persons who have shown interest in running for president on its platform and is not insufficient of potential flag bearer. “When people say that the coalition was put together for a particular candidate running elections, in the papers yesterday, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar came out to say he is going to run for president. “So, if this whole thing was put together for him, why would he need to come out to say he is running for president. Don’t forget we still have the likes of Peter Obi, Rotimi Amaechi and others who are interested in running, and we have reiterated that they have an equal chance,” he said.
