A prominent son of Ebonyi State, Chief Nelson Ahamuefula Akuma, has appealed to Ndigbo to embrace the African Democratic Alliance (ADC). Speaking recently in an interview with newsmen in Lagos, Akuma, who is also the CEO of Nestak Technologies Ltd., said that ADC has become the only option for Ndigbo since the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC) have not been fair to the people of the South-East in particular and Nigerians in general.

According to him, late Second Republic Vice President, Dr. Alex Ekwueme, was the brain behind the formation of PDP, but that the party did not think it wise to give Igbos even the vice presidential position of the party in all the years it was in power, while from the onset, APC was anti-Igbo, noting that the 41 interim members of its executive had no singe Igbo person. Akuma also talked about the impact the death of former President Muhammed Buhari would have on the 2027 presidential election Excerpts:

You were among the earliest people that joined the African Democratic Congress (ADC) when it was adopted as the party for the coalition, why did you do that?

The reason why I joined African Democratic Congress, immediately it was adopted as the political platform for the coalition was because of the love that I have for the good people of Ebonyi State in particular and Nigerians in general. There is a saying that you cannot continue to do the same thing and expect to get a different result. Every day by day I watch with pain millions of Nigerians going to bed without food. The number of out of school children is increasing on a daily basis because parents can no longer eat, let alone have money to pay school fees. Even nobody is sleeping with his or her two eyes closed again because of insecurity. In fact, life has become brutish and short in Nigeria. In Ebonyi State where I come from, everybody is living in fear because of herdsmen, bandits and unknown gun men. Ebonyi State which used to be the food basket of Igbo land because of our God given fertile land has become land of hunger because people are now afraid of going to their farms. Even traveling from one state to the other has become a nightmare. So there is no way we can continue like this. I therefore see ADC as a party on a rescue mission. Nigeria is now like a sinking ship so, ADC is here to rescue it.

There is this view that it is still the same people in PDP and APC that are going into APC, so what difference do you think they could make?

There is no way you can judge somebody when you have not tried him or her. It is only when you give somebody power and he or she fail in using it very well that you can begin to accuse him of being clueless, incompetent or not having empathy. No member of the coalition as I speak has held the position of president and commander in chief of the armed forces of Nigeria. So the question is not how many years you have being running for one political office or the other but what positioned have you held. Atiku Abubakar was former Vice president under Chief Olusegun Obasanjo and we know the state of Nigeria’s economy in their administration. It was an inclusive administration with technocrats like Ngozi Okonjo Iweala as the Minister of Finance and Chukwuma Soludo as the governor of Central bank of Nigeria. In fact, the Obasanjo/Atiku administration was not just a government of national unity. It was also a government of national competence. That is the reason why the United States is the biggest economy in the world. They don’t care where you come from as long as you can deliver what is expected of you. Peter Obi as the governor of Anambra state was above board in performance. Before he became governor, Anambra State was number 26 in education but he brought it to number one. It is because of what he achieved as the governor of Anambra state that the masses are following him and you see what he did in 2023 presidential election. Again before Peter Obi became governor, Onitsha, most especially Upper Iweka and Head Bridge, were no-go areas with regards to insecurity. But he fought the robbers to a standstill. The same with the other members of the coalition. So the party will make every big difference with regards to security and economy because it consists of people who have excelled in different fields of human endeavour.

What do you think are the chances of ADC defeating Tinubu in the 2027 presidential election?

I want to tell you that defeating Bola Ahmed Tinubu is not in the hands of Tinubu but rather defeating him is in the hands of the opposition. Once ADC is able to pick the right presidential candidate, we will have a different face in Aso Rock in 2027.The reason is because hunger has done over 70 percent of the jobs for the party. Hunger has already mobilized greater number of Nigerians to vote against Tinubu, so ADC is expected to do the remaining 30 per cent which I know will not be a problem if we pick the right presidential candidates and the other heavy weights give the candidate their full support. An instance, if Atiku Abubakar galvanize the north and Peter Obi galvanize the south, where would Tinubu votes come from. As we say in our parlance, hunger does not have tribe or religion. Nobody is buying fuel cheaper than the other because he is Yoruba, Hausa or Igbo. So there is hardly anybody that will be willing to vote Tinubu in 2027 with what Nigerians are going through at the moment. That is the reason I said that defeating Tinubu is not in his hand. He has lost it. It is the coalition that would decide whether he would be there beyond 2027 or not.

What do you think is there for Ndigbo in ADC?

Let me answer your question without beating about the bush. ADC will bring the Igbos close to power. Dr. Alex Ekwueme was the chairman of G 34 which metamorphosed into PDP and by right he was supposed to be the presidential candidate of the party in 1999. In politics, there is what is known as right of first refusal. This is a privilege that is given to the highest political office holder in a political party. At the time of formation of PDP in 1988, Dr. Alex Ekwueme was the highest political office holder having served as Vice President to Alhaji Shehu Shagari but Ibrahim Babangida and co, denied him the ticket. The topmost political position that Igbos got under PDP was the senate president. Under the current APC Igbos were pushed further downwards to the position of Deputy Speaker. But I have every confidence that ADC will bring Igbos up. We will have a far better deal in the hands of ADC than we had under PDP and APC.

Another thing is that the economy of Nigeria will be far better managed under ADC than PDP and APC and Igbos are more in commerce. Since 2015 Igbo business men who were importing 10 containers of goods can hardly afford one, because of high interest rate and devaluation of the naira. Even a lot of Igbo business men have gone out of business but that will not be so under ADC government.

What do you think will be the impact of Buhari’s death in the 2027 presidential election?

Well, nobody would doubt the impact that the death of Muhammadu Buhari would have during the 2027 presidential election because of the late leader’s formidable cult-like followership, long estimated at over 12 million. Even former military Head of State, General Abdulsalami Abubakar, who is not a politician had suggested that the former President’s death could reshape Nigeria’s political dynamics.

But as you can see most of Buhari’s loyalist were already with ADC even before he died. I am talking of the likes of Babachir Lawal, Abubakar Malami, Isah Pantami, Emeka Nwajuba, Nasir El-Rufai, Rotimi Amaechi, Rauf Aregbesola and the rest of them. Those are Buhari people. And their presence in the leadership of the coalition indicates that that is where Buhari stood before he died. So the majority of them, the entire North is already with our party. We are very confident. The passing of the former President will only cement that for us because that was his wish when he was alive – that his members should join the coalition. You know that APC was a coalition of parties like ACN, CPC, ANPP and a faction of APGA. But since Tinubu became president about two years ago, they alienated the members of CPC, ANPP and APGA and they began to use Muhammadu Buhari as scape goat for their failures. President Tinubu’s government has blamed Buhari for almost every economic woe. So, why would Buhari followers or loyalists remain with the APC? The question now is why would they remain part of the APC? Is it because they enjoy the humiliation and the exclusion they have suffered? Or is it because they have watched the government demonise the legacy of Buhari while he was alive? So, ADC is going to inherit most of the Buhari’s supporters and loyalists and mind you Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, whether anybody believes it or not is now the most influential political leader in the northern part of Nigeria. It is because of this that I am urging southeasterners to join ADC let us salvage this country together.