The African Democratic Congress, ADC, has picked Dr. Mani Ahmed as the vice presidential candidate of the party to run along side Dumebi Kachikwu in the 2023 general election.
This was made known to newsmen by the National Chairman of the party, Chief Ralph Okey Nwosu at the end of the party’s two-day retreat in Abuja.
According to the Chairman, the party has found a ‘critical intellectual’ as a vice president for the country.
“We’ve had a good party arrangement Dr. Mani Ahmed has been put in place, he is a great party man and one of the critical intellectuals for nation building in Nigeria.”Nwosu added.
Ahead of the 2023 general elections, Chief Nwosu assured Nigerians that the ADC remains the party that can deliver, adding that the party has opened its doors for collaboration, alliances and fusions.
He alluded to the ADC primary as one of the best primary elections, saying that, “In the last primary elections, only three political parties did what we will qualify as a national convention and presidential primaries. PDP, APC and the ADC were the only three parties that held what we can call a meaningful party primary.
“In other parties, some individuals went and bought over the party and were declared the candidates. I think the media should give ADC all the credit for what we’ve done as a political party. And even if you compare us with the APC and PDP primaries I can say we scored 90 percent.”
Fielding questions from journalists on why a former presidential candidate, Kingsley Moghalu, quit the party, Chief Nwosu had this to say, “We had 2050 delegates from all the 36 states of Nigeria, all the 774 local governments and tribes were there. And there is no judgement or decision making that will be richer than the diversity of over several ethnicities and local governments.
He stressed that Some people may be feeling cheated but if the entire family of Nigeria come together and decide this is their man and some people feel cheated, Nigerians have decided, and not him because he never told anybody who to vote for, Nigerians decided.
“That is why in the forthcoming elections, Nigerians will decide it, no one man can decide this election. What happened in the ADC convention is a microcosm of what will happen come 2023 general election. Therefore you should start giving ADC the credit that it deserves.”
On his part, ADC’s Presidential Candidate, Dumebi Kachikwu said the aim of the retreat was to harmonize with the party state Chairmen for towards a successful presidential campaign.
“The essence of the two-day retreat is to addresse three issues, which are post convention issues, state of the nation and the way forward for us as a party to win the forthcoming election” Kachikwu stated.
“Members are here to review the performance on the just concluded convention, reviewing the strength of the states and their readiness for the next elections”.
Kachikwu stressed that at end of the retreat the party will come up with a strategy for all the states to harmonise for the presidential campaign.
