2027: I’m Ready to Stepdown for a Younger Candidate, ADC Setting Up State, LG Structures- Atiku
Former Vice President the 2023 presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar has said that his new party, the African Democratic Congress (ADC) is currently setting up state structures across Nigeria.
Speaking in an interview with the BBC Hausa service on Wednesday, Atiku stated that he was not desperate to be president and clarified that he is ready to step down for a younger and vibrant candidate ahead of the 2027 presidential election.
Affirming his membership of the ADC, Atiku said that he left the PDP because some “senior members of the party” were colluding with the ruling All Progressives Congress to ruin the former ruling party.
Atiku said, “Besides, that is one of the reasons we set up ADC, which I am a member of. We couldn’t achieve that with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) because the APC government in power has decided to use some leaders of the party to frustrate efforts of having a strong opposition that could challenge the government
“As the day went by, the crises in PDP were growing, and the hope of resolving it was speedily vanishing because some senior members of the party were allegedly being used by the government to further destabilise the party, and we could see that in their actions and utterances.
“I could have taken some firm decisions to fix the party if I was the chairman or secretary of the party or someone that listens to me was the chairman or secretary. Sadly, the people occupying those positions have different interests that are mostly personal to them.
Speaking on the internal crisis rocking the ADC, the former Vice President said that the party has settled leadership issues at the national level and currently working to set up the state and local government structures in the party across the 36 states and the FCT.
According to him, “Regarding the ADC, our goal is to establish the structures of the party at the state levels. We have already established the national leadership and they are working on ensuring the state and local government structures are strengthened and ready for 2027 elections.”
Atiku has remained an acerbic critic of the President Bola Tinubu led APC federal government insisting that the government was removed from the reality of the Nigerian situation.
