Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar on Wednesday, May 27, 2026, emerged victorious as the Presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) for the 2027 election.
His victory followed the conclusion of collation of the results of the party’s presidential primary which took place at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel.
Atiku secured a total of 1,846,370 votes to record a landslide victory in the party’s presidential primaries ahead of former Governor of Rivers State, Hon Rotimi Amaechi who polled 504,117 votes and Mohammed Hayatu-Deen who recorded 177,120 votes.
Announcing the results after the collation of votes from the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory, the Returning officer, Senator Tunde Ogbeha, declared Atiku the winner having satisfied the provision of the party guidelines and highest number of votes cast.
Ogbeha said that a total of 2,557,977 party members participated in the presidential primary exercise.
Following the announcement and declaration, the National Chairman of the ADC, officially presented the party’s flag to Atiku as its standard-bearer for the 2027 presidential election.
In his acceptance speech, the former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar expressed gratitude to party members for the confidence reposed in him and called for unity among members ahead of the general elections.
Atiku appealed to party stakeholders and supporters to close ranks and work together to strengthen the ADC’s chances in the 2027 polls.
While noting that unity was essential to achieving the party’s success, Atiku expressed profound appreciation for the privilege members of the ADC bestowed on him, saying that the ADC remains one of the leading great parties in Nigeria.
Atiku further said; “We demonstrated that while democracy is being strangled and squashed by the ruling party and its oppressive and anti-democratic government, democracy is alive and well in the African Democratic Congress.
“In our party, members are allowed to express their views, have ambitions, and contest for elective positions in a free, fair, and transparent process.
“Our great party is a coalition built through hard work, immense sacrifices and compromises, guided by our determination to rescue our country’s democracy which is facing its greatest threat since the return to democratic rule in 1999.
“As I speak, virtually all opposition political parties in the country face a leadership crisis engineered by the APC government, the INEC, and elements in the judiciary. And opposition figures continue to be harassed and intimidated, including those languishing in detention, such as Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, who distinguished himself as a public servant, including as a Minister and two-term Governor of Kaduna State.
“He has been in detention for three months despite court orders granting him bail. He has been denied the right to celebrate two important religious holidays with his family in addition to being denied the opportunity to be by his mother’s side as she took her last breath. All because he is a leading opposition figure!
“This kind of cruelty must stop. The government continues to harass, intimidate and coerce opposition politicians to join the APC using the security agencies as well as the agencies which were set up by a previous government to fight corruption.
“Under this government, once a person joins the APC, the harassment ceases and the charges against them magically disappear. This abuse of power must stop,” he stated.
Atiku noted that great care was taken to ensure that due diligence was done in the process of forming the ADC coalition, adding that yet, the government and the INEC continue to undermine it, even trying to deregister it.
He therefore said; “Let me warn that any further attempt to interfere in the affairs of the party by the Presidency, INEC and judiciary will be fiercely resisted. Enough is enough”.
Atiku congratulated his fellow contestants on the ADC ticket to represent the party in the elections scheduled for early next yearn saying that he knew that they were driven by their patriotism and commitment to a better Nigeria and improved life for our people.
According to Atiku; “I know that, like me, you are deeply concerned about the rapid descent of our country into economic disaster, catastrophic insecurity, extreme nepotism, political intolerance and the drive towards a one-party state by the current government and its party. I thank you for your healthy participation in this democratic process.
“I must state at this juncture that this is not the time to celebrate. No one was defeated because we are one party and we all need to recognise the fierce urgency of the moment.
“Therefore, we have to unite, as we pledged before this process, to work to pull our country and our people out of the destructive grip of a corrupt, incompetent and polarising APC government,” he stated.
Atiku thanked the Primary Elections Committee for organising peaceful, free, fair and transparent primaries and also thanked the various leadership organs of our party, the various stakeholders, and volunteers for their hard work and dedication and all our party members and supporters for their efforts, patience and conduct during the process.
He further said; “With the primaries behind us, the real hard work is about to begin. We have to prepare to campaign hard to win the next general elections to begin the difficult process of rescuing our country and its long-suffering people from this government.
“We will be guided by clear national plans with set targets and timelines in line with commitments enshrined in our party’s manifesto. We will provide clear leadership that will empower our states to competitively attain the potential of meeting the expectations of citizens. That will include working with them to guarantee well-outlined minimum standards of welfare provision in line with international best standards. Ours will be a new era of accountable leadership.
“We shall prioritise Security, Education, the Economy, Healthcare and the challenge of power- sharing among the constituent units of our country.
“Every region of this country is gripped by insecurity, the worst kind in our history. Our people are being slaughtered in large numbers and the government has failed to take decisive and effective action to stop it and bring the perpetrators to justice.
“The most disturbing is that members of our security forces, including military generals, are being slaughtered wantonly in a manner that can only be embarrassing to our military, which fought to keep the country together and is highly respected in various parts of the world where they distinguished themselves in international assignments. All we have been getting from the government is silence and, on occasion, expressions of condolence and empty promises to deal with the murderers.
“An ADC government under my leadership will take decisive action to address insecurity and protect lives and property in the country. We shall strengthen the armed forces, the police and other security agencies with massive new recruitment, provision of modern and adequate equipment, training, improved welfare and effective leadership. We shall also ensure accountability and proper coordination and intelligence sharing among all our security agencies,” he declared.
