Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has named ex-Transportation Minister Chibuike Amaechi as his running mate on the African Democratic Congress (ADC) presidential ticket, setting up a possible “AA” pairing for the January 16, 2027 election.
The pick caps weeks of tense negotiations within the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) coalition platform and positions the duo as a direct rival to the “OK” ticket of Peter Obi and Rabiu Kwankwaso. By choosing Amaechi, Atiku appears to be correcting course from 2023, when he rebuffed Nyesom Wike after Wike placed second in the PDP presidential primary.
Speculation had long suggested ADC favoured an Atiku-Amaechi pairing to balance the North-East and South-South on its ticket, especially after Obi and Kwankwaso defected to the NDC. However, Amaechi had publicly resisted the idea, insisting after submitting his N90 million nomination form that he wasn’t angling for the VP slot, and on May 20 ruling out any consensus arrangement in favour of a direct primary.
A close ally told The Guardian that Amaechi eventually yielded to pressure from senior political figures in the North-West and South-South after Atiku assured him the VP role would carry “extensive roles to play in the campaigns and government.”
The development also follows a dismissal by ADC chieftain Eze Chukwuemeka Eze of earlier claims by party stalwart Dele Momodu that Amaechi had rejected the VP slot. Eze described those remarks as personal opinion that could stoke “unnecessary tension, mistrust and misunderstanding” within the party, adding that Amaechi’s prior comments only meant no one had formally approached him about the position.
Separately, in a Democracy Day statement, Atiku accused the Tinubu administration of running a “deliberate and coordinated effort” over the past three years to weaken and fragment opposition parties ahead of 2027, citing manufactured leadership crises, orchestrated defections, and the alleged misuse of anti-graft agencies, the police, the National Assembly, and parts of the judiciary to intimidate opposition figures. He called on Nigerians to resist “democratic backsliding” and uphold the spirit of June 12.
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