2027: Jonathan offering Peter Obi ministerial slots to step down presidential ambition– ADC chieftain
The 2023 presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Dumebi Kachikwu, has stirred political waters with claims that former President Goodluck Jonathan is making backroom offers to influence the 2027 presidential race.
Speaking at a press conference in Abuja on Friday, Kachikwu alleged that Jonathan had offered Labour Party’s 2023 presidential candidate, Peter Obi, the position of Coordinating Minister of the Economy on the condition that Obi drops his 2027 ambition and throws his weight behind Jonathan’s return bid.
Kachikwu claimed that northern political power brokers were behind Jonathan’s re-entry into the race as part of a broader strategy to “weaken the south” in national politics.
“In order to weaken the south, they have now drafted in former President Jonathan into the race, who is alleged to be offering Peter Obi the position of Coordinating Minister of the Economy for him to support his ambition,” he said.
The ADC chieftain, who has opposed moves to use his party as a platform for an opposition coalition in 2027, insisted that despite reports of opposition figures, including Obi rallying under the ADC banner, the party had not been formally adopted for such an arrangement.
The ADC, now led by interim chairman, David Mark, has dismissed Kachikwu’s stance, reminding him that he has been expelled from the party since 2022.
Kachikwu further alleged that Obi had been bluntly told he would not receive significant northern votes because of his Igbo heritage, and was being pressured to serve as Atiku Abubakar’s running mate instead.
He accused Atiku and some northern elites of clinging to political power for decades without addressing poverty and illiteracy in the region.
“They use the weapons of region, religion, tongue, tribe and poverty as they convince millions of poor northerners that a southern President Tinubu hates them and is the cause of their poverty,” Kachikwu alleged.
