KEY POINTS
- Atiku says every ADC presidential aspirant will contest without pressure to withdraw.
- He urges Nigerians to resist what he calls APC intimidation of opposition parties.
- He argues Tinubu, not opposition figures, should step aside due to economic hardship.
Atiku Abubakar, a former vice president, says that no one in the African Democratic Congress, ADC, who wants to be president will step down before the 2027 election. This puts to rest rumors that there is internal pressure to do so.
Atiku’s media adviser, Paul Ibe, made the announcement on Tuesday. He said that the party’s process would stay open so that all candidates could see how popular they were without being forced to do so.
There has been more speculation in the last few weeks that Atiku was being told to step aside for a southern candidate as the ADC gets ready to run against President Bola Tinubu. Atiku pushed back, saying that these kinds of stories don’t get the party’s direction right.
Call to resist intimidation of opposition
Atiku also told Nigerians to stand up to what he called the All Progressives Congress’s, ADC, efforts to weaken opposition parties through threats and political pressure.
He said that a healthy democracy needs strong opposition voices and warned that shutting down alternatives would make the country’s political and economic problems worse.
He says that the ADC is still committed to internal democracy and fair competition. He also says that leaders should be chosen based on their credibility and the trust of the public, not through secret deals.
The former vice president then turned his criticism on President Tinubu, saying that the current president should be the one to step down.
He said that Tinubu’s government was becoming a bigger problem for the country, pointing to economic problems and what he called a shrinking democratic space since the president took office.
Atiku said, “Nigerians have been through one of the worst times in recent history,” blaming policies that he said have made life worse for people all over the country.
