The camps of Alhaji Abubakar Atiku’s rivals for the presidential ticket of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) are not taking kindly to his recent attempt to rubbish their popularity, especially in the north.

Supporters of Mr. Peter Obi and those of Dr. Rabiu Kwankwaso declared yesterday that claims by the former vice president that he is the dominant northern vote-getter have no basis in contemporary Nigerian politics.

The Kwankwasiyya Movement, which is rooting for a joint ticket of Obi and Kwankwaso, dismissed Atiku’s support in the north as largely induced as against the “genuine grassroots followership’ of the former Kano State governor.

Former Transportation Minister Rotimi Amaechi personally responded to Atiku’s claims.

“If Atiku is saying the only qualification he has to become president is that he’s from North, well and good. That means on the election day, the North should vote for him, and the South shouldn’t,” Amaechi said on Channels Television yesterday.

The former vice president had, during an interview on Arise Television on Thursday, written off rival northerners aspiring to be president in 2027.

He said: “Can you tell me among the current leaders in the north who has more votes than I have? We are talking of figures like Tambuwal, Kwankwaso, El-Rufai and the emerging political figures. None of them has gotten more northern bloc votes as much as I have got.”

Of Kwankwaso, he said the former Kano governor “has only Kano votes” adding that even at that, Kwankwaso’s support base is now divided between him and Governor Abba Yusuf.

Atiku visited Kwankwaso in his Abuja residence yesterday in what observers said might be an attempt by the former VP to apologise for the impression his comment may have created.

His dismissal, in the same interview, of former President Goodluck Jonathan as inexperienced also drew flak from different quarters.

Jonathan’s former Special Adviser on Media, Reuben Abati, branded Atiku’s statement rude and arrogant.

Nigeria’s ambassador designate to Germany Femi Fani-Kayode, shared Abati’s view on Atiku. He called it sheer arrogance.

Speaking on Trust TV yesterday, spokesman for the Kwankwasiyya Movement, Habib Mai-Lemu, said of Atiku: “He has been contesting elections under platforms of well-structured political parties with elite consensus and broad-based support across Nigeria; you cannot actually deduce his votes as purely his own popularity.”

This, according to Mai-Lemu, contrasted with Kwankwaso’s electoral performance on the platform of NNPP which had no such institutional backing.

Continuing, he said: “When my principal (Kwankwaso) contested under a relatively unknown party without the backing of the elite; he was able to garner around 1.5 million votes.

“Wherever he is, irrespective of the political party, he will have this particular applause along with him.

“I want to put it clearly to all Nigerians that it is only Peter Obi and my principal that have organic followers that are not induced; their individual aspirations lie in the belief of their ability and competence to deliver Nigeria.”

He warned members of the ADC coalition against “using words that instead of closing ranks may widen differences.”

Shortly after the Jumat prayers yesterday Atiku, accompanied by his associates, drove to the Maitama, Abuja residence of Kwankwaso, in what observers said might be an attempt to mend fences over the Arise Tv comments.

Kwankwaso’s media aide, Saifullahi Hassan, confirmed the visit. He said both leaders held private discussions after exchanging pleasantries.

Amaechi questions Atiku’s popularity

Former Transportation Minister, Amaechi insinuated that Atiku is not as popular as he claims to be.

When the interviewer asked the ex-Rivers State governor whether he could match the 6.9 million votes won by Atiku in the 2023 presidential election and the 6.1 million votes by Obi in the same poll, Amaechi retorted: “We are registering now in the ADC. Why haven’t the 6 million registered with the ADC? Why do we have 3 million? If I were on the ballot (in 2023), I would have more than 6 million votes.”

He added: “I led the campaign for Buhari twice and delivered 15 million votes.”

On Atiku’s northern popularity claim, Amaechi said: “If Atiku is saying the only qualification he has to become president is that he’s from North. Well and good. That means on the election day, the North should vote for him, and the South shouldn’t.”

He said although Atiku “is eminently qualified to be president of Nigeria, he has right to contest. But he has to understand that there are other factors beyond where he comes from.

“Nobody should stop him because he’s a northerner or because he’s not a northerner. You can’t say to him, because you’re a northerner, you’re not qualified.

“You’re disenfranchising northern elites who are qualified to contest the position, that’s what I’m saying.

“He has been Vice President; he has governed with President Obasanjo.

“I’m also saying that there are other factors to consider in governance. The argument that the Vice President has put in place of north and south will not be the only factor.”

Amaechi described himself as the only ‘national candidate’ ahead of the 2027 elections because as he put it “some are running as Igbo candidates; some are running as Hausa-Fulani; President Tinubu is running as a Yoruba candidate.

“They are all regional candidates, but I am not a regional candidate. I’m not running because I’m Igbo, even though I’m partially one.”

On his chances, he said: “Go to Anambra State and see what Peter Obi has done. Atiku was vice president; let’s see what he’s done and what he did in Customs. Look at what Tinubu has done in Lagos and in Nigeria now; come to Rotimi Amaechi in Rivers State and look at what I’ve also done in transportation, and choose who would be the presidential candidate.

“Do a referendum; all the aspirants who are running for presidency have served in government.”

He disagreed with Atiku on picking ADC’s presidential candidate by consensus.

He said: “There must be a primary election in the ADC. I don’t agree with those who say there should be a consensus candidate. A 49-year-old has been elected in Benin Republic. I’m the youngest candidate among all those running now, I’m 60.”

“Although he is eminently qualified to be president of Nigeria, he has right to contest. But he has to understand that there are other factors beyond where he comes from,” Amaechi said.

The former Rivers State governor noted that the presidency requires someone strong enough to move around to solve Nigeria’s problems swiftly.

“This position requires the capacity to put yourself on the roads and see what is happening.”

Atiku’s comment on Jonathan arrogant, rude, says Abati

Reuben Abati took exception to Atiku’s description of former President Jonathan as decent but inexperienced leader.

Atiku had claimed that some of the challenges faced during Jonathan’s presidency stemmed from insufficient preparation for the role.

However, Abati who now anchors Arise TV’s The Morning Show said yesterday that Atiku’s comment was condescending and very rude.

He said Atiku, despite his long years in active politics, is yet to reach the political heights attained by Jonathan.

His words: “To refer to the former president as a decent man but a young man who is inexperienced smirks of arrogance, with due respect. Whatever happens in the 2027 election, Atiku is still aspiring to become what former president Jonathan has already achieved.”

He also criticised the former vice president for questioning Vice President Kashim Shettima’s loyalty to President Bola Tinubu when Atiku’s own loyalty as vice president to his then principal, Olusegun Obasanjo, was in doubt.

Fani-Kayode too

Fani-Kayode, in a lengthy reaction on social media yesterday, said he was astounded that Atiku referred to Jonathan as a ‘young man.’

“You refer to a man that has lived on the earth for 68 years and that has had the privilege of not just enjoying the position you once attained as Vice President but also went further than you to become President as a ‘young man’? I am astounded by the sheer arrogance of your words.

“This is all the more so given the fact that you are only 11 years older than him if reports about your age are to be believed. You went further by saying that Jonathan was ‘inexperienced’ and ‘he failed’. You forgot that during Jonathan’s time Nigeria had the fastest growing economy on the African continent & did so much more but I leave it to his former Govt. officials & Ministers to defend his record in public office and prevent you from distorting and revising history and attempting to rubbish that record.’

Jonathan, Fani-Kayode said, was “a loyal Vice President to President Umaru Yar’Adua, and he never betrayed his principal, coveted the latter’s office or tried to rubbish his legacy.”

In the same Arise Tv interview, Atiku had said of Vice President Kashim Shettima: “I will not respond to Shettima because he is disrespectful. I am older than him and I have more experience in governance than he does, so I will not respond to him. It is not part of our tradition in the North to disrespect elders. You cannot look at someone who is senior to you in both age and accomplishments and start taunting him. That is not our tradition, so I won’t engage with him.”

Fani-Kayode described the former VP’s position as “strange coming from you.”

He said: “I seem to recall that between 1999 and 2007 when we were in power you openly insulted, disrespected and led a full scale rebellion and unrelenting mutiny against President Obasanjo who was not only your boss and our leader but who also had far more working experience than you and was much older.

“The only reason you cannot answer Kashim is because you have nothing to say, you have no answer to his challenge and finally, unlike you ever were or could be, he is totally and completely loyal to his principal and our leader President Tinubu.

“As Vice President you could not find the courage to do same. As a matter of fact from day one of the eight years that you were VP till the day we left office you were plotting to remove OBJ from his seat with the help of other dissidents and make yourself President.

“What could be more disrespectful than that to an elder or anyone else? I am a living witness to the whole thing and I am pleased to say that you failed.”

On Atiku’s dismissal of his northern rivals for the presidential ticket of the ADC as not as popular as himself, Fani-Kayode said: “the truth is that you have displayed such a lack of humility, such arrogance and such a glaring display of hubris with these words.

“I wonder how those three names you mentioned all feel about what you have said about their popularity or lack of it.

“Clearly this is the beginning of the disintegration of the ADC. By the time this is all over you may well end up having ten factions in your party and not just three. One thing is clear in all this and that is the fact that you sir are loyal to your ambition and to no-one and nothing else. It is only a matter of time before your new found friends in the ADC appreciate that and see you for who and what you really are. I come in peace and I wish you well sir.”

Group defends Jonathan’s legacy, labels Atiku’s comment mischievous

Also reacting, the Citizens Alliance for Transparent Leadership (CATL) accused Atiku of distorting historical facts and attempting to downplay the legacy of former President Jonathan.

Convener of the group, Musa Ibrahim, and the publicity secretary, Oghenekaro Samuel, said in a statement that Atiku’s statement was “not just wrong, but mischievous.”

“Dr. Jonathan rose through every constitutional rung of leadership—Deputy Governor, Governor, Vice-President, and Acting President during a critical national period. To dismiss that trajectory as ‘inexperience’ is either a willful distortion of facts or a troubling misunderstanding of governance itself,” the group stated.

CATL further questioned the basis of Atiku’s criticism, noting that while Jonathan’s leadership credentials were tested in office, Atiku’s experience at the presidential level remains unproven.

“It is remarkable that someone whose ‘experience’ is largely defined by repeated ambition now seeks to diminish the record of a leader whose competence was tested in office, under pressure, and in full public view,” the statement added. (The Nation)

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