2027: Jonathan Allegedly Offers Obi Ministerial Position to Step Down, Says Kachikwu

Former presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Dumebi Kachikwu, has alleged that former President Goodluck Jonathan offered ex-Labour Party presidential candidate, Mr. Peter Obi, the position of Coordinating Minister of the Economy in exchange for withdrawing from the 2027 presidential race to support him. Kachikwu claimed that Northern political interests have drafted Jonathan into the race to weaken the South, adding that Obi was told he could not secure Northern votes because he is Igbo. “In order to weaken the South, they have now drafted in former President Jonathan into the race, who is alleged to be offering Peter Obi the position of Coordinating Minister of the Economy for him to support his ambition,” Kachikwu said. He accused former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and a few Northern elites of holding political power for decades without addressing widespread poverty and illiteracy in the region. According to him, these elites have weaponised “region, religion, tongue, tribe and poverty” to mislead millions of poor Northerners into believing that President Bola Tinubu and other potential Southern aspirants are against them. Kachikwu further alleged that Obi had been told “in very clear terms” that he would never get Northern votes as an Igbo man and should therefore accept being Atiku’s running mate. Calling for unity, Kachikwu urged Nigerians to “resist former Vice President Atiku and his co-travellers who don’t believe in an equitable Nigeria.” “We don’t burn our houses because we want to kill rats and cockroaches; sometimes we just need to make our houses clean so that rats and cockroaches leave on their own. My earnest prayer is that Nigeria will soon work for every one of us,” he said.