The African Democratic Congress Presidential Campaign Council (ADC-PCC) has expressed confidence that former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar can win Kano State in the 2027 presidential election without the support of Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso.
The council also accused the former Kano State governor of allegedly working to divide opposition parties and advance President Bola Tinubu’s re-election bid.
The ADC-PCC was reacting to Kwankwaso’s call for Atiku to step aside for former Labour Party presidential candidate Peter Obi ahead of the 2027 election.
In a statement issued on Thursday, the council’s Director of Media and Publicity, Kola Ologbondiyan, described Kwankwaso’s position as self-serving, alleging that it could distract opposition parties from their efforts to defeat the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
Ologbondiyan questioned why Kwankwaso was criticising opposition leaders instead of challenging the Tinubu administration over the country’s economic difficulties, including hunger, poverty and insecurity.
“Rather than campaigning against President Tinubu, whose administration Nigerians are eagerly working to vote out, Kwankwaso is fixated on Atiku Abubakar, the ADC candidate, whom millions of Nigerians believe can restore economic stability and make life affordable again,” he said.
He accused Kwankwaso of advancing the APC’s interests by allegedly creating divisions within the opposition.
“What Kwankwaso is doing amounts to advancing President Tinubu’s interests. It is a familiar APC strategy to use willing collaborators within the opposition to create confusion, sow division and weaken the collective efforts to bring about political change,” Ologbondiyan added.
The council dismissed suggestions that Atiku would require Kwankwaso’s support to secure victory in Kano, citing former President Muhammadu Buhari’s victories in the state during the 2003 and 2007 presidential elections.
It argued that Kwankwaso’s political influence in Kano should not be interpreted as an assurance that he could determine the outcome of the presidential election.
Ologbondiyan also contrasted Atiku’s nationwide political networks with Kwankwaso’s largely regional influence, saying the former vice-president had built relationships across the country over more than three decades.
“Atiku Abubakar is a cosmopolitan, detribalised and nationally recognised political figure who has built relationships across the North, South, East and West over more than three decades,” he said.
He questioned Kwankwaso’s ability to translate his political influence in Kano into broader national electoral support, citing his fourth-place finish in the 2023 presidential election.
“If his political relevance were as extensive as he suggests, why did he finish fourth in the last presidential election?” he queried.
The ADC-PCC spokesman further alleged that Kwankwaso’s position on Obi’s candidacy was influenced by personal political calculations ahead of the 2031 presidential election.
The council urged Kwankwaso and other opposition leaders to put aside their individual ambitions and unite behind Atiku in the 2027 election.
Ologbondiyan warned that continued disagreements among opposition figures could weaken their collective efforts to defeat the APC and end Tinubu’s administration.
“The task before opposition leaders is not to undermine one another for personal political advantage but to unite around the urgent national mission of rescuing Nigeria,” he said.
