A chieftain of the African Democratic Congress, Dele Momodu, has described calls for former Vice President Atiku Abubakar to step aside for Peter Obi ahead of the 2027 election as insulting and disrespectful.
Momodu made the remarks on Tuesday while speaking during an interview on Arise Television, where he defended Atiku’s constitutional right to remain in the presidential race.
According to him, efforts to pressure the former presidential candidate into abandoning his ambition were unfair, insisting Atiku had earned his place in Nigeria’s political landscape through years of commitment and political engagement.
“This campaign against Atiku is well-coordinated. He’s not a foolish old man; he knows that what he has built delicately, meticulously, and tenaciously, he will see it to the end. That is his business. You cannot bully him out of a contest; it is his right. If he is going against the constitution, I will not support him, but he has not done anything to go against the constitution of Nigeria,” he stated.
Momodu also challenged the assumption that Obi must automatically emerge as the preferred candidate, recalling that Atiku had already chosen Obi as his running mate during the 2019 presidential election, a partnership that still ended in defeat.
“Why can’t Obi be his Vice President? He brought Obi as VP running mate in 2019; they did not win. So, why the hurry that it must be only Obi?,” he quizzed.
Speaking further, the ADC stalwart warned against treating any politician as Nigeria’s sole political saviour, despite Obi’s growing support base among young Nigerians.
“I still don’t understand why everybody is acting like we have a Jesus Christ in our hands and if we don’t support him, we’re all going to perish. I disagree with you on that. Go and check the records of each and every one of the aspirants in the ADC,” he maintained.
Reiterating his support for Atiku, Momodu insisted that suggesting the former vice president should withdraw from the race in favour of Obi amounted to disrespect.
“I will support my Atiku. You are disrespecting people, right, by even suggesting that he should step down for Obi; it’s an insult,” he stressed.
