Former Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, has said former Vice President Atiku Abubakar would lose the 2027 presidential election if he secures the ticket of the African Democratic Congress, ADC.
Mr Amaechi, who is also an aspirant of the ADC, stated this during an interview on Trust TV on Monday night.
The former Rivers governor said that although Atiku had consistently won party primaries, he 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.”
According to him, 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.
Mr Amaechi further argued 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.
He, however, praised both Atiku and former Labour Party presidential candidate, 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.
The former minister 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.”
