By Lateef Ibrahim, Abuja
THE African Democratic Congress, (ADC), has sounded a note if warning to
the supporters of all presidential aspirants on its platform to stop preaching the language of exceptionality, especially those of Mr Peter Obi ahead of the party primaries June this year .
This is as the coalition party has declared that holding the 2027 elections this year (2026) as being canvassed in some quarters will amount to a double-edged sword for it.
The party stressed that it will struggle to heal wounds and prepare for the polls if elections will be conducted this year .
An earlier election, it reasoned, will on the other hand work for the ADC because Nigerians are tired of the All Progressives Congress (APC) administration .
The National Publicity Secretary of the ADC ,Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi said he has had engagements with former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, former Labour Party Candidate in the 2023 elections Mr Peter Obi, the former Governor of Rivers State Rotimi Amaechi as well as the likes of former Kaduna State Governor, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai on the need to strengthen unity , focus and shared commitment that will guarantee victory in the forthcoming elections.
According to Mallam Abdullahi ,” I spent time talking to His Excellency Atiku Abubakar , Peter Obi, Rotimi Amaechi who have indicated interests to vying for the presidential ticket of our party as well as the likes of Mallam Nasir El-Rufai to strengthen our party and unite it and , the general consensus seems to be that we have a job to do to make this country a better place .
“Our leaders are all aware of the task ahead and everyone of them is committed to ensuring that we win this election”, he said.
On the proposal for the 2027 elections , Mallam Abdullahi said ,” whether the elections take place this year or next year, it will be a double work for us and also work against us.
“It will work against us because as an opposition we need time to heal wounds after our primaries because we cannot afford to go into a bruised primaries and quickly put ourselves together for the elections.
“So, on that note, we prefer next year. On the other hand, holding the election this year, the advantage we will have is that people are already tired of this administration , but in all of these we are not in a position to decide when that election should hold but that is the truth .”Let me also say this , those supporting this divisiveness by supporters of any of the aspirants should stop what they are doing because they are clearly working to the advantage of the APC and President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
“Saying it is either this candidate or nothing is not helpful because getting the ticket alone means nothing ,what is important is winning the election and we cannot carry this divisiveness and expect to win .
“We believe that all our aspirants are eminently qualified and vilifying anybody or any region is not helpful and will make it more difficult .
“We are going to commence the process of strethening and having our leaders speak unity amongst themselves .
“We are going to ignore people cresting exceptionality and we going to focus on what we are doing because we want to win this elections .
“Those shouting Peter Obi or nothing are equally not helping him. They are preaching division and they are not selling him.
They are not providing the room for people to support him from other places , they should stop making other people to take hard stances because everyone needs to be on board for us to win this election”, he declared.
Abdullahi further stated that it is taking the forthcoming Federal Capital Territory elections seriously, stressing that since it did not do well in the Anambra off-season elections ,therefore it would want to make the statement .
It also expressed concerns that Lagos State Government was comparing civil servants with the National Identification Number to register as members of the APC.
