Festus Keyamo has stated that the ADC is in total disarray, describing their efforts as a journey to nowhere.
Festus Keyamo has stated that the ADC is in total disarray, describing their efforts as a journey to nowhere.
Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, has described the newly proposed coalition between former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and former Anambra State Governor Peter Obi as politically hollow and doomed from the outset. According to him, the African Democratic Congress (ADC), touted as the likely platform for the alliance, is nothing more than a gathering of spent political forces with no real electoral value.
In an interview with ARISE News on Monday, Keyamo said while the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) remains alert and focused on delivering results to Nigerians, it does not consider the Atiku-Obi coalition a serious threat.
“We are not resting our oars, so let me say that very clearly. Any politician who says that he sees an opponent and he is laughing and beating his chest is a foolish politician.”
He stressed that the APC is intensifying its efforts to earn the electorate’s trust ahead of the next general election.
“We are getting more aggressive in terms of delivering the dividends of democracy to Nigerians. We are looking also at ensuring that the electorates trust us to take them to the next tenure of this government and all of that.”
Keyamo dismissed the strength of the ADC coalition, saying it is composed mostly of political retirees with no real influence.
“But let me tell you that the ADC is in total tatters and they are on a journey to nowhere.”
“The ADC as it is today is a collection of individuals who have left largely the PDP. And in leaving the PDP, they are not people who are still holding sway in PDP. They are not present people who are in power, who can influence a lot of votes. So you now have a lot of ex-this and ex-that.”
“If there are people who are retired, Atiku eventually went to wake them up from retirement to say, please come and give me a semblance of a coalition.”
He noted that the few former APC members who joined the ADC were of no loss to the party.
“All two or three of them who left to ADC now, they all lost their states or refused to work for us in 2023. We lost nothing.”
Claiming accuracy in past political predictions, Keyamo described himself as a “political Nostradamus.”
“I want to say it again that I can rightly say, I’ve declared myself that I’m a political Nostradamus… I did it in 2019. I did it in 2023. You go and play all my tapes back. I’ll tell you exactly what will happen.”
“Now, they want to pair Obi and Atiku together. Like I said, it’s not even an exposition I’m giving. It’s not an expo because either way they go, it’s a journey to nowhere.”
He argued that the 6.9 million votes attributed to Obi in the 2023 election cannot be transferred to Atiku, and that Atiku’s own claim to votes was mostly tied to the PDP structure, not personal popularity.
“They are trying to see whether they can measure those two volumes of votes together, to see whether they can surpass our 8.9 million votes. That’s all.”
“But they don’t know that the dynamics have changed and the dynamics will change. First of all, Atiku does not possess that 6.9 million votes.”
“Obi is more of a cult personality than Atiku. So Atiku cannot take that 6.9 million votes away from PDP. It was the PDP structure that gave him that vote.”
“He left those structures behind. Those structures did not follow him. So for him to think he wants to take some 6.9 million votes, I will give him 1 million votes out of those 6.9. The rest are PDP votes.”
“The PDP remains intact. The governors, the senators, the House of Representatives, he did not take one away. Except maybe these senators following him. That’s all.”
Keyamo warned Obi that he risks being used as a decoy to attract votes without receiving the party’s presidential ticket.
“They are struggling to get those Obi’s votes. We tried it that time with Buhari, but we had to give Buhari the ticket because we knew he had those 12 million votes. But they don’t want to give him the ticket.”
“The ADC is Atiku’s party. The earlier Obi knows that, the better. So the moment he’s hiding behind Obi, he should not be hiding behind one finger.”
He also claimed that a ticket led by Obi would lose support from the North.
“If you now put Obi as the candidate, there is no Northerner alive that will vote for another Southerner for another eight years.”
“All the promises of ‘I will do one term’ is what they call foul. No human being dead or alive, even if you carried juju and swear for 19 hours, nobody would believe.”
“It’s not about what he says. It’s about what people believe. So let him preach it 1,000 times, they will just be laughing at him behind. Because no man alive today, even his own people, even his wife, we know that he will not run one time.”
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