Former 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 if he would withdraw from the 2027 presidential race to support Jonathan’s ambition.
POLITICS NIGERIA reports that opposition politicians, including Obi, adopted the ADC as the platform for an opposition coalition ahead of the 2027 elections.
Speaking at a press conference in Abuja on Friday, Kachikwu claimed that Northern political interests drafted Jonathan into the contest as a strategy to weaken the South’s influence.
“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,” he said.
Kachikwu further alleged that Obi was told he could not win Northern votes because he is an Igbo man.
“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 added.
He accused former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and some Northern elites of holding political power for decades without improving illiteracy and poverty 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 the deliberate spread of falsehoods against President Tinubu and other southern presidential aspirants.
Calling on Nigerians to resist Atiku and his allies, Kachikwu said, “We must all come to equity with clean hands and sincerity of purpose.”
“We don’t burn our houses because we want to kill rats and cockroaches; sometimes we just need to make our houses clean so that rats and cockroaches leave on their own.”
“My earnest prayer is that Nigeria will soon work for every one of us,” Kachikwu said.