A presidential aspirant of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Rotimi Amaechi, has said a former Vice-President, Atiku Abubakar, is unelectable, citing his repeated failures to win general elections after emerging as a party candidate.
During an interview on Trust TV’s Daily Politics on Tuesday, the former Rivers State governor said he would defeat Mr Atiku if any political party nominated him as its candidate in a general election.
Mr Amaechi said, “He started contesting in 1992; it’s his choice to contest. I listened when they said the former vice-president said he had never failed the primaries before. I hope this will be the first time he will fail primary, but that’s not even the issue.
“The issue is that, at all times that he has passed primaries, he has not won elections. It’s about electability, it’s about if you put me before the country, vis-à-vis him, will he be able to win the election? The answer I get is that he may not be able to win the election if he’s put forward.”
Responding to the remarks, Mr Atiku’s spokesperson, Paul Ibe, told the Peoples Gazette that Mr Amaechi should wait for the ADC primary scheduled for May 25 instead of jumping the gun.
Mr Ibe said, “People should stop putting the cart before the horse. At the end of the process, all the leaders will rally round whoever emerges as the candidate. If the former vice president loses out in the primary, he’s committed to do that and has the obligation to rally around whoever emerges as the candidate.
“We don’t even need to jump the gun; we’re still at the stage of party primary before we get to the general election mode. We’re not yet there; each of the aspirants is still trying to sell themselves to the party to make a determination as to who they will opt to fly the ticket. If that choice has not been made, and anything to that end is mere speculation.”
Mr Ibe also noted that Mr Atiku lost the primary to former president Goodluck Jonathan while in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in 2011, and to President Muhammadu Buhari when he was in the All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2014.
He added that Mr Atiku secured six million votes across 12 states to finish second behind President Bola Tinubu in the 2023 presidential election.
