The Presidential Candidate of the African Democratic Party in the 2023 election, Mr. Dumebi Kachikwu, is unhappy that politicians who have had numerous opportunities to serve Nigeria but failed, have now connived to hijack the party from the genuine members, who sacrificed over the years to nurture the party to where it is today, to actualise their political ambition in 2027.
But he has promised to resist them and run again as the presidential candidate of the ADC in the 2027 poll. In this interview, he tells Atiku and other aspirants who are eyeing the ADC as the platform for actualizing their ambition, to keep off and look elsewhere as the party has no space for them in 2027.
Kachikwu particularly warns Atiku to go and rest as there is no room for him to use the ADC ticket to run as president having tried and failed to use his positions to salvage Nigerians from pains and penury over the years.
So if you become the president, how will you tackle that problem?
First and foremost, I will address all inequities, all inequalities, all injustice in the fabric of our nation. I will address it squarely. There’s nobody who is above the law or above our country. In addressing that, I will then bring representatives of the people to a round table, where we then ultimately take on the difficult issues that have been bedeviling our nation for the last couple of decades. As long as we run away from the difficult conversations, they will continue to mitigate against us as a people. So we must face these issues squarely, talk about them and come to a resolution concerning all these issues. Once we discuss these things, we’ll find that we can move forward because everybody ultimately knows that these issues have been discussed, addressed and that we are now seeking healing.
For example, you saw the late President Buhari came in and appointed his kith and kin into all available positions in Nigeria. President Tinubu came and did the same thing. So each time a president comes, it’s about his people. Until we address why this happens and what we can do about it and why it is morally wrong, and why it should not stand in a nation where we are all the same, we will continue to face this problem. The President that comes after Tinubu will do the same thing because he will say, Buhari did it, Tinubu did it, why wouldn’t I do it for my people? So we must address these issues squarely.
Will you not then become a very unpopular president if you fail to cater for your own people simply because you want to be seen as a nationalist who operates on the basis of meritocracy?
I think you’re wrong. I believe that when you take care of everybody, you take care of your people. The mistake we keep on making is taking care of our people and leaving everybody. But when we take care of everybody, our people are part of everybody and they will be taken care of. So you deal with the issue of unpopularity. Once you do the right thing for all categories of Nigerians-both rich and poor- everybody will feel it. If you go after a nation that works for everybody, we are part of that word everybody and everybody will be taken care of. We must start looking at everybody as against what we do now when we appear as if we are a nation for the few privileged persons.
