Former governor of Rivers State, Chief Rotimi Amaechi, has said Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, Nigeria’s former Vice President would lose the 2027 presidential election if he gets the ticket of the African Democratic Congress (ADC).
The Niger Delta born politician said this during an interview on Trust Television on Monday night.
Amaechi who is also an ADC presidential aspirant, argued that Atiku had consistently won party primaries, but had failed to translate them into victories at the presidential election.
“I listened when the former vice president said he never failed a primary before. I hope this will be the first time he will fail a primary,” Mr Amaechi said.
“The issue is that at all times that you have passed primary, you have not won an election. So, it’s about electability.”
The former Minister of Transportation stressed that the major question for the party should be which aspirant stands a better chance of defeating the ruling party in the general election.
“Can I win the election if you put me before the country vis-à-vis him (Atiku)? Will he be able to win the election? The answer is no because he ran under the PDP and lost. That’s an elementary analysis,” he said.
He further noted that his own candidacy would present a fresh option to voters because he had never contested a presidential election before.
“I’ve never run. If nothing else, I can argue that I’ve never run any presidential election,” he added.
Amaechi however, commended both Atiku and Peter Obi, saying they would govern Nigeria better than President Bola Tinubu if elected.
“If you give this country to Vice President Atiku to govern, I believe he would do well. Just as I think Governor Obi would do well. Honestly, both of them would do better than President Tinubu,” Mr Amaechi said.
He also accused Tinubu of promoting ethnic considerations in governance, while contrasting his approach with that of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, whom he described as “a huge nationalist.”
