2023 presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Dumebi Kachikwu, has alleged that former President Goodluck Jonathan offered Peter Obi, the Labour Party’s 2023 presidential candidate, the position of Coordinating Minister of the Economy on condition that Obi withdraw from the 2027 presidential race to support Jonathan’s bid.
Dockaysworld reports that Kachikwu made the allegation during a press conference in Abuja on Friday.
He claimed that Northern political interests have drafted Jonathan into the presidential contest as part of a strategy to weaken the South’s influence in national politics.
“In order to weaken the South, they have now drafted in former President Jonathan into the race who is alleged to be offering Peter Obi the position of Coordinating Minister of the Economy for him to support his ambition,” Kachikwu said.
The ADC has been proposed as the platform for an opposition coalition ahead of the 2027 elections, a move Kachikwu has contested. Despite opposition figures, including Obi adopting the party as their platform, Kachikwu has maintained that the party has not been formally adopted for the coalition.
Meanwhile, the ADC, now under interim chairman David Mark, has reminded Kachikwu of his expulsion from the party since 2022.
Further, Kachikwu alleged that Obi was warned that he would not secure votes from the Northern region due to his Igbo ethnicity.
“A Peter Obi has been told in very clear terms that he will never get northern votes as an Ibo man and as such he should accept to be Atiku’s running mate,” he claimed.
Kachikwu also accused former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and some Northern elites of maintaining political power for decades without addressing the endemic poverty and illiteracy in the region.
“They use the weapons of region, religion, tongue, tribe and poverty as they convince millions of poor Northerners that a southern President Tinubu hates them and is the cause of their poverty,” Kachikwu charged.
He condemned what he described as a deliberate campaign of falsehoods against President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and other southern presidential aspirants.
He called on Nigerians to stand against Atiku and his allies.
