By Ayomide Otitoju
Dumebi Kachikwu, the 2023 presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), has dismissed the adoption of the party by Nigeria’s opposition coalition, led by former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, describing the move as illegitimate and a “dramedy.”
The coalition on Wednesday announced that it had chosen the ADC as its political platform to challenge the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in the 2027 general elections. Former Senate President David Mark was unveiled as the party’s interim national chairman, with ex-Osun State Governor Rauf Aregbesola named interim national secretary.
Kachikwu, in a strongly worded statement, insisted that the coalition was aligning with a defunct leadership faction of the ADC led by Ralph Nwosu, whose tenure he said ended in August 2022.
“It is with the greatest amusement that I watched the Atiku-led group announce their takeover of the ADC,” Kachikwu stated. “They are buying into a faction whose leadership tenure expired nearly two years ago and whose continued claims to the chairmanship have been the subject of legal battles across the country.”
He criticised the coalition members as relics of Nigeria’s political past. “These yesterday’s men who represent a bad chapter in Nigeria’s history have aligned with a man who represents a bad chapter in ADC’s past,” he said. “You cannot enter a man’s house through the back door and declare yourself the landlord.”
Kachikwu further accused the coalition of prioritising personal ambition over national interest. “They claim to be on a rescue mission, yet they are the very architects of our national woes. Their decades of leadership have yielded nothing but division, mediocrity, and poverty,” he declared.
Calling on Nigerians to reject the old guard, Kachikwu said: “We yearn for a new Nigeria built on meritocracy and inclusiveness, not recycled leadership and power entitlement. If they truly wish to join the ADC, they should come through the front door.”
He concluded by suggesting the coalition might soon seek another party. “I strongly suspect they will be shopping for another platform soon. As they do, we, the members of the African Democratic Congress, wish them Bon Voyage.”
The development has further exposed divisions within Nigeria’s opposition ranks ahead of the 2027 elections.
