Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has settled on ex-Transportation Minister Chibuike Amaechi as his running mate on the African Democratic Congress, ADC, platform, setting up a possible ‘AA’ ticket for the January 16, 2027 presidential election.
The move positions ADC to counter the rival OK pairing of Peter Obi and Rabiu Kwankwaso on the NDC ballot.
—From Wike snub in 2023 to Amaechi pick–
Atiku’s choice of Amaechi marks a reversal from 2023, when he declined to pick then-Rivers governor Nyesom Wike, who finished as runner-up in the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, primary.
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This time round Atiku appears to have embraced the North-East/South-South balance that party insiders had pushed for months.
Amaechi had publicly ruled out interest in the VP slot after filling his N90 million presidential nomination form.
On May 20 he also rejected consensus arrangements, insisting on a direct primary.
But sources close to the former Rivers governor told The Guardian that Atiku gave assurances that “the VP nominee would have extensive roles to play in the campaigns and government,” a pledge that swayed Amaechi after entreaties from political leaders in the North-West and South-South.
ADC chieftain Eze Chukwuemeka Eze dismissed reports credited to Dele Momodu that Amaechi had rejected the VP offer, calling them “personal opinion capable of creating unnecessary tension.”
Eze said Amaechi’s earlier comments only meant no one had formally approached him until now.
—Atiku hits Tinubu govt on Democracy Day–,
Atiku announced the VP pick as he released a Democracy Day statement on June 12, using the occasion to blast the Bola Tinubu-led APC administration.
He said its actions “contradicted the spirit, sacrifice and legacy of June 12.”
In the statement personally signed by him, Atiku urged Nigerians to “stand up against bad governance, reject the politics of intimidation, and resist every manifestation of democratic backsliding.”
He alleged that over the past three years there had been “a deliberate and coordinated effort to weaken, fragment and neutralise opposition political parties ahead of 2027” through manufactured leadership crises, orchestrated defections, political intimidation and the abuse of state institutions.
He accused anti-graft agencies, the police, the National Assembly and even segments of the judiciary of being turned into “instruments of partisan warfare” to harass and coerce opposition voices into submission or defection.
With Obi and Kwankwaso now on the NDC ticket, the Atiku-Amaechi pairing gives ADC a counterweight aimed at combining northern votes with South-South and Niger Delta influence. Both camps will now face the task of consolidating the fractured opposition coalition ahead of campaigns for the 2027 polls.
[Rewritten report sourced from The Guardian]
