Not yet time to celebrate – Atiku speaks on emergence as ADC presidential candidate 

The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has named former Vice‑President Atiku Abubakar as its presidential candidate for the 2027 election, and Atiku has cautioned that celebration is premature.

In a statement posted to X, Atiku urged members of the ADC to unite in an effort to remove Nigeria from what he called the “corrupt, incompetent and polarising” grip of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

“I must state at this juncture that this is not the time to celebrate. No one was defeated because we are one party and we all need to recognise the fierce urgency of the moment,” he wrote. “Therefore, we have to unite, as we pledged before this process, to work to pull our country and our people out of the destructive grip of a corrupt, incompetent and polarising APC government.”

Atiku praised the ADC’s primary election committee for conducting the primaries “peaceful, free, fair and transparent” across the country. He added, “I thank the primary elections Committee for organising peaceful, free, fair and transparent primaries. I thank the various leadership organs of our party, the various stakeholders, and volunteers for their hard work and dedication and all our party members and supporters for their efforts, patience and conduct during the process.”

He emphasized that the real work begins now that the primaries are over. “With the primaries behind us, the real hard work is about to begin. We have to prepare to campaign hard to win the next general elections in order to begin the difficult process of rescuing our country and its long‑suffering people from this government,” he added.