Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has emerged the presidential candidate of the African Democratic Party (ADC) for the 2027 general elections, defeating two other contenders in what the party described as a free and transparent primary process.
Atiku polled 1,846,370 votes to clinch the ticket, far ahead of former Minister of Transportation and Rivers State Governor, Rotimi Amaechi, who garnered 504,117 votes and former banker, Mohammed Hayatu-Deen, who got 177,120 votes.
Accepting the party’s nomination, Atiku struck a comparative tone against the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC), accusing President Bola Tinubu’s administration of strangling democracy, engineering crises in opposition parties, and weaponing security agencies against political opponents.
“The government continues to harass, intimidate and coerce opposition politicians to join the APC using the security agencies as well as the agencies which were set up by a previous government to fight corruption,” Atiku said. “Once a person joins the APC, the harassment ceases and the charges against them magically disappear. This abuse of power must stop.”
He specifically cited the detention of former Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, who he said has been held for three months despite court orders granting him bail, and was denied the opportunity to be with his mother as she died.
On the economy, he accused the Tinubu administration of mortgaging the futures of young Nigerians, alleging that external borrowing alone has reached $3billion in three years, with contracts awarded to government cronies without competitive bidding. He also said the promised benefits of fuel subsidy removal had never materialised for ordinary Nigerians.
The former Vice President outlined four priority areas for an ADC government: security, education, economy, and healthcare.
He promised to overhaul the armed forces and police with new recruitment, modern equipment, and improved welfare; to implement free and compulsory education at the primary and secondary levels; to address the country’s energy crisis as a foundation for economic growth; and to make massive investment in primary healthcare, noting that the Federal Ministry of Health reportedly received only N30 million for capital expenditure in the last fiscal year.
Speaking on party unity, Atiku urged his defeated rivals to close ranks. “There are no winners and no losers,” he said, appealing to both Amaechi and Hayatu-Deen to join him “in this fight to save our democracy and our country,” and promising to campaign and govern alongside them if Nigerians give the ADC their mandate.
The ADC, which Atiku described as a coalition built through “hard work, immense sacrifice and compromises,” has faced attempts by the presidency and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to undermine it, including efforts to deregister the party. Atiku warned that any further interference “will be fiercely resisted.”
