Spokesman for the African Democratic Congress (ADC) presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, Kenneth Okonkwo, has explained why the party settled for former Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, as its vice-presidential candidate instead of selecting a running mate from the South-East.
Okonkwo also dismissed claims that he had opposed Amaechi’s nomination, insisting that his previous comments reflected a geopolitical position rather than personal objections to the former Rivers State governor.
Speaking during an appearance on Channels Television on Thursday, the former actor and lawyer maintained that he fully supports the party’s decision and remains loyal to its leadership.
Responding to suggestions that he had resisted Amaechi’s emergence as Atiku’s running mate, Okonkwo said, “I do not know where you got that from.”
He stressed that the choice of a vice-presidential candidate rests with the party and should be respected by all members.
“First and foremost, he is the choice of the party and everybody that is a loyal party member,” he added.
Clarifying his earlier position, Okonkwo said his preference had always been for the South-East to produce the vice-presidential candidate, but explained that legal requirements under the Electoral Act significantly narrowed the range of eligible contenders.
“I said I expected that the Vice President should come from South-East. It was a geopolitical expression, not the person of anybody, and of course I understood the limitations within the Electoral Act 2026. Remember, for anybody to be eligible to contest, you must have been a member 21 days before the primary, so the people from the South-East that I would have preferred, strictly speaking, were not even registered members, so we are restricted,” he said.
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According to him, only a handful of aspirants had demonstrated serious interest in contesting the party’s presidential primary before the race eventually narrowed.
“Rotimi Amaechi, Hayatu-deen, Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi, these were the people that were showing interest to contest the presidential election, and then when Peter Obi left, South-East was thrown into confusion, and you have to pick a vice president that has elicited interest that he wants to embark on the onerous duty of campaigning around the nation,” he said.
Okonkwo argued that Amaechi’s impressive performance during the presidential primary made it politically difficult for the party to overlook him or his supporters in the final calculations.
“Amaechi got up to 500 and something voters in the primary, you cannot alienate them,” he said.
Despite accepting the outcome, Okonkwo maintained that party leaders should have engaged stakeholders from the South-East before reaching a final decision on the vice-presidential ticket.
“What I was agitating is that even if you have constraints, you ought to get the people of South-East and sit down with them and say, look, these are my constraints. Then they will know what they will present to their people,” he said.
He also revealed that Atiku Abubakar was outside Nigeria when news of the vice-presidential nomination first emerged, noting that the former Vice President moved quickly to consult party stakeholders immediately after returning to the country.
“Atiku was not in Nigeria when the party made the announcement, he traveled, so when he came in, he did the needful. If you recall, and that is the beauty of this great democrat. When he came in, everything was halted. When he came in, he went into dialogue, called all the parties,” he said.
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