No One Was Defeated in the ADC Presidential Primary; We Are One Party and Have to Unite – Atiku

Added: 2026-05-31

[00:00:00]the chairman of our great party, Senator David Mark, and members of the National Working Committee of ADC, members of the Presidential Election Committee, your excellenc es distinguished ladies and gentlemen, I wish to express my profound appreciation for the privilege which you have bestowed on me of leading our great party, the African Democratic Congress into the next elections. as his presidential candidate.

[00:01:07]I am truly humbled and excited by this singular honor.

[00:01:15]We demonstrated that while democracy is being strungled and squashed by the ruling party and its operatives and anti-democratic government, democracy is alive and well in the African Democratic Congress.

[00:01:38]In our party, members are allowed to express their views, to have ambitions, and to contest for elected positions in a free, fair, and transparent process.

[00:01:58]Our great party is a coalition built through hard work, immense sacrifices, and compromises, guided by our determination to rescue our country's democracy, which is facing its greatest threat since the return of democracy in 1999.

[00:02:24]As I speak, virtually all opposition political parties in the country are being thrown into different forms of leadership crisis.

[00:02:37]and opposition figures continue to be harassed and intimidated, including those languishing in detention, such as Malam Naser Eruay, who distinguish himself as a public servant, including as a minister and a two-time governor of Kaduna State.

[00:03:01]He has been in detention for three months despite court orders granting him bail.

[00:03:10]He has been denied the right to celebrate two important religious holidays with his family in addition to being denied the opportunity to be by his mother's side as she took her last breath.

[00:03:24]What a cruel government.

[00:03:29]All because he is leading opposition figure.

[00:03:35]This kind of cruelty must stop.

[00:03:42]The government continues to harass, intimidate and coass opposition politicians to join the APC using the security agencies as well as the agencies which were set up by a previous government to fight corruption.

[00:03:59]Under this government, once a person joins the APC, the harassment by this agency ceases and charges against them magically disappear.

[00:04:16]This abuse of power must stop.

[00:04:25]Great care was taken to ensure that due diligence was done in the process of forming this coalition.

[00:04:33]Yet the government and INC continue to undermine it even trying to deregister it. Let me warn >> Let me warn again >> that any further attempt to interfere in the affairs of the party by the presidency, INC and judiciary will be fiercely resisted. Enough is enough.

[00:05:07]I congratulate my fellow contestants for this ticket to represent our great party in the election schedule for early next year.

[00:05:17]I know that you are driven by your patriotism and commitment to a better Nigeria and improve life for our people.

[00:05:26]I know that like me you are deeply concerned about the rapid descent of our country into economic disaster, catastrophic insecurity, extreme nepotism, political intolerance and the drive towards a one party state by the current government and its party.

[00:05:46]I thank you for your participation in this process which is healthy for our party's internal democracy and for democracy in our country.

[00:05:58]I must state that at this juncture this is not the time to celebrate.

[00:06:03]No one was defeated.

[00:06:06]No one.

[00:06:12]We are one party and we all need to recognize the fierce urgency of the moment.

[00:06:18]Therefore, we have to unite as we pledge before this process to work to pull our country and our people out of the destructive grip of a corrupt, incompetent and polarizing APC government.

[00:06:35]I thank the primary elections committee for organizing a peaceful, free, fair and transparent primaries.

[00:06:48]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.

[00:07:06]With the primaries behind us, the real hard work is about to begin.

[00:07:13]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.

[00:07:27]We will be back. We will be guided by clear national plans with set targets and timelines in line with commitments enshrined in our party's manifesto.

[00:07:39]We shall provide clear leadership that will empower our states to competitively attain the potentials of meeting the expectations of his citizens.

[00:07:51]We will ensure governments at all level work together to guarantee well outlined minimum standards of welfare provision in line with international best standards. Ours will be a new era of accountable leadership.

[00:08:15]We shall prioritize security, education, the economy, healthcare and the challenge of power sharing among the constituent units of our country.

[00:08:30]on security.

[00:08:32]Every region of this country is gripped by insecurity, the worst kind in our history.

[00:08:39]Our people are being slaughtered in large numbers and the government has failed to take decisive and effective action to bring the perpetrators to justice.

[00:08:50]The most disturbing is that members of our security forces including military generals are being slaughtered one tonly in a manner that can only be embarrassing to our military which fought to keep the country together and is highly respected in various parts of the world where they distinguish themselves in international assignments.

[00:09:18]All we have been getting from the government is silence and on occasion expression of condolence and empty promises to deal with the murderers.

[00:09:32]An exit ADC government under our leadership will take decisive action to address insecurity and protect lives and property in the country.

[00:09:47]We shall strengthen the armed forces, the police and other security agencies with massive new recruitment, provision of modern and adequate equipment, training, improve welfare and effective leadership.

[00:10:05]We shall also ensure accountability and proper coordination and intelligence sharing among all our security agencies.

[00:10:16]It is obvious to us in the ADC that we can only secure our country in the long term if we educate our young people and create an economy in which they and their families can thrive and help change Nigeria and the world for the better.

[00:10:39]Your excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, education, education, education.

[00:10:55]Under the watch of this APC government, over 20 million of our school age children are not in school.

[00:11:04]This cannot be tolerated in the modern world. where education is the shest path to decent employment, wealth creation, national development and enlightened citizenry.

[00:11:17]We shall therefore implement free and compulsory education at the primary and secondary levels and invest in leadership, entrepreneural, technological and innovation skills among our team and youth. We shall embark on a holistic revival of our educational system by ensuring that staffing, buildings and all infrastructures are in place to make Nigerian youths competitive.

[00:11:51]Your excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, the economy, the creation of an economy that works for Nigerians can only gather momentum when we address our utterly embarrassing and economy destroying energy crisis.

[00:12:15]The provision of electricity is a minimum requirement for industrialization.

[00:12:20]Whether in factories or on farms or for big business and small enterprises, this APC government has failed wofully in the economy.

[00:12:34]The poverty gripping our people is at a level that we have never seen in our society. The APC government brandishes statistics claiming that the economy is growing. What has really been growing is the illgotten wealth of a few around corridors of power. While our people have extreme difficulty in finding food to eat, paying for medical treatment or paying their children's school fees.

[00:13:05]We commit to building an economy that benefits all Nigerians.

[00:13:11]The government promised improve welfare for our people with removal of fuel subsidy.

[00:13:17]Needless to say, the savings from subsidy removal have not been accounted for and the economic hardship resulting from the action has been unbearable on our people.

[00:13:30]To make matters worse, the APC government under President Bola Amed Tinibu has made borrowing the cornerstone of his economic policy.

[00:13:41]External borrowing alone has reached 30 billion US dollars and the massive amounts borrowed are given away in contracts to friends and cronies of those in government without competitive bidding and with no pretense of due process. The future of our younger generation is being mortgaged with no accountability.

[00:14:13]That has to change and will change under an ADC government.

[00:14:23]We shall remove the bottlenecks limiting investment across sectors of our economy to attract local and foreign investment that will create jobs and meaningful growth and we shall provide incentives where necessary to promote investment and job creation.

[00:14:45]Your Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, healthc care.

[00:14:54]In the face of glaring health care challenges facing the country, we learned recently that the Federal Ministry of Health received only 30 million naira for capital expenditure in the preceding fiscal year. This is clearly a government that doesn't care about the health of its people.

[00:15:14]is laughable.

[00:15:18]Serious though, our ADC government will propriize prioritize health care with emphasis on prevention.

[00:15:29]Therefore, we will make massive investment in primary health care. In addition, we shall properly equip and staff our medical centers of excellence to ensure that our people receive the best specialist care here in Nigeria rather than travel abroad for the same.

[00:15:49]We shall establish more such centers where needed and incentivize the private sector to build worldclass medical facilities across the country to meet the needs of our people.

[00:16:02]In the coming weeks and months, we shall be rolling out our platform addressing these priorities in more detail and with clear timelines.

[00:16:16]Fellow Nigerians, while the APC government offers meaningless renewed hope, we will provide renewed action to repair the damage they have done to our economy and society over the last 12 years of misrule.

[00:16:40]My dear friends, we have faced great challenges in building this coalition.

[00:16:45]Believe me, let us now turn our energies to continuing to build this party as we prepare for the campaign to win the elections and to rescue this country from the current misrule.

[00:16:59]We have a sacred responsibility to build a party that will stand as a great institution not only in Nigeria but as a great example across the world.

[00:17:15]I at Abu Bakr therefore appeal to all those who feel agrieved to come back to our party and close ranks with the rest of us.

[00:17:30]I appeal to all those who contested for various positions in our primaries to close ranks with us. In particular, I invite Chief Rotimir AI and Alaji Muhammad Hayat to Dein to join me in this fight to save our democracy and our country.

[00:17:54]As I said previously, there are no winners and no losers. Our people look up to us for leadership. I'm ready to lead.

[00:18:09]I shall work with you all to continue to build our party. I will campaign with you and if Nigerians give us the mandate, govern with you to build a country that works for all of us.

[00:18:26]Your excellencies, distinguished ladies and gentlemen, thank you and may God bless you and bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria.