The presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, has begun the search for a running mate, investigations by LEADERSHIP Sunday have shown.
Atiku, a veteran of the presidential race, won his party’s presidential ticket on Wednesday, a result disputed by his fellow contestants.
The two contestants, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi and Alhaji Mohammed Hayatu-Deen, condemned the outcome of the primary, which they alleged was neither free, fair, nor credible.
However, in his acceptance speech, Atiku called on the two men to join him in rescuing the country from the grip of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
The former vice president subsequently visited Amaechi at his Abuja residence to seek his cooperation.
However, during the visit, Atiku was said to have remained silent on the issue of a running mate, neither asking the former governor to be his running mate nor discussing possible nominees.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with media entrepreneur Chude Jideonwo on #WithChude, a day after publicly criticising the process and outcome of the primaries, Amaechi insisted that he stood by his comments on the party’s primary.
He also said that no one had approached him about becoming Atiku’s vice-presidential candidate.
“I stand by what I said about the ‘concocted results,” Amaechi said firmly. “But I am still a member of the ADC. No one has asked me to be VP. They know my worth.”
Investigations by LEADERSHIP Sunday indicated that Amaechi is not being considered for the position of running mate by Atiku and his close allies.
Sources close to Atiku and top party members are said to prefer that his running mate come from the South-East, which is considered his natural political ally and strategically important ahead of the 2027 general election.
The position of running mate was reportedly reserved for former Anambra State governor, Mr Peter Obi, before he resigned from the party and joined the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC).
Obi was Atiku’s running mate when both contested the 2019 presidential election on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), but they lost to the late President Muhammadu Buhari of the APC.
Thereafter, both politicians pursued separate paths in the 2023 general election. While Obi contested on the Labour Party platform, Atiku remained the PDP candidate.
President Bola Tinubu of the APC, who defeated both candidates, secured 8,794,726 votes, while Atiku and Obi polled 6,984,520 and 6,101,533 votes respectively.
LEADERSHIP Sunday gathered that former Imo State governor and former deputy speaker of the House of Representatives, Emeka Ihedioha, is being tipped for the role of Atiku’s running mate.
Unlike many South-East politicians who left the ADC for the NDC alongside Obi, Ihedioha remained in the party and reportedly played a key role in mobilising support for Atiku during the presidential primary.
“He actually played a major role in ensuring that the region was delivered for the former vice president in the just-concluded presidential primary of the party,” a senior party source, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to comment publicly, told LEADERSHIP Sunday.
Ihedioha, who contested the 2019 governorship election on the PDP platform, was sworn in as governor of Imo State on 29 May 2019 but was removed from office by the Supreme Court on 14 January 2020. He was subsequently replaced by Senator Hope Uzodimma.
The former deputy speaker is still widely regarded as an influential political figure in the South-East, the same region from which Obi, the NDC presidential candidate, hails.
