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Says he doesn’t believe in southerners
From Charity Nwakaudu, Abuja
The 2023 presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Dumebi Kachikwu, has fired at the former Vice President Atiku Abubakar over the recently formed coalition.
Speaking at a press conference in Abuja on Thursday, July 17, Kachikwu said that Nigeria is not for a particular region.
He said the Atiku-led coalition is not a rescue movement for Nigerians but a political gang-up by old politicians that seek power for personal economic gains.
“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 economies. They are truly on a rescue mission, but it is a mission to rescue themselves from the harsh economic realities which they themselves created for our nation,” he said.
Kachikwu stressed that former Vice President Atiku’s belief that the presidency is the birthright of the North is responsible for the current disintegration in the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).
According to him, “Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, a man whose antecedents clearly show he doesn’t believe anyone from the southern part of Nigeria is deserving of being president of Nigeria, orchestrated this charade for his personal benefit.
“He almost truncated President Obasanjo’s return for a second term because he believed the seat was his. President Jonathan suffered the same fate, and then after eight years of the late President Buhari as president, the same Atiku believed it was morally right for him to be the presidential flag bearer of the PDP in the last presidential elections.
“This was most unjust and unfair and led to the current disintegration of that party. He is now using some charlatans to deceive former governor Peter Obi that only he, Atiku, has what it takes to win an election because he can get the majority of the North to vote for him. This is most uncharitable of him. If the former Vice President says my assertions are not true and that all he wants is a better Nigeria,” he said.
Kachikwu further added that it is the right of southern Nigeria to rule for eight years, and anyone who must unseat Tinubu in 2027 must be from the South.
