A faction of the African Democratic Congress on Sunday unveiled Mr. Dumebi Kachikwu as its sole presidential candidate for the 2027 general election, with the businessman and politician outlining an ambitious reform agenda centred on what he described as a “Nigerian Patriot Act” aimed at forcing public office holders to use the same public services available to ordinary Nigerians.
He stated this at a special convention held on Sunday night in Abuja amid an ongoing leadership realignment within the party.
Kachikwu declared that his first engagement with the National Assembly, if elected president in 2027, would be the presentation of the proposed legislation designed to end what he called the disconnect between Nigeria’s political elite and the masses.
According to him, the proposed bill would prohibit public servants and their families from using private or foreign schools and hospitals while also barring them from relying on private generators and boreholes unavailable to average citizens.
“We can’t have different rules for different criminals. If you do the crime, you do the time,” Kachikwu declared during his acceptance speech.
He said, “I maintain that if given the privilege to lead this nation, my first executive interface with the National Assembly will include a bill I have dubbed the Nigerian Patriot Act.
“It is a bill of equality and fairness. It is a bill that says we are all in this together. It is a bill that ensures that public servants cannot use the privileges they cannot provide to the common man.”
The ADC presidential candidate said any individual seeking public office must be compelled to rely on the same healthcare, education and public utilities used by ordinary Nigerians.
“If you desire to be in the public service, you must use the same services the masses use. No private or foreign schools for our families, no private or foreign hospitals for us or our families, no generators or boreholes in our homes,” he stated.
Kachikwu also used the occasion to attack the nation’s political establishment, accusing successive leaders of deepening division, poverty and insecurity while failing to build an inclusive national identity.
He said Nigeria must abandon ethnic and regional politics in favour of merit-based leadership and national unity.
“We are not the Hausa/Fulani Republic of Nigeria. We are not the Ndigbo Republic of Nigeria and neither are we the Oduduwa Republic of Nigeria. We are the Federal Republic of Nigeria,” he said.
“We will no longer engage on the basis of Hausa, Ibo and Yoruba or North and South but on the basis of one indivisible Nigeria,” he added.
The ADC candidate further rejected zoning politics, insisting that competence rather than ethnicity or religion should determine leadership emergence.
“We will zone out all proponents of zoning and usher in a Nigeria that promotes merit, character and knowhow above primordial sentiments,” he added.
Kachikwu promised sweeping economic and technological reforms, including the construction of technology parks in all senatorial districts, nationwide broadband expansion and the transformation of farming into large-scale agribusiness.
According to him, Nigeria’s economic revival would depend heavily on digital innovation and investment in human capital.
“My government will make broadband available and affordable for all because this is the only leverage our kids have to compete in this new world,” he said.
“We will build technology parks in every senatorial district in Nigeria that will serve as incubation centres for digital jobs, research and development.”
He also criticised what he described as wasteful borrowing by successive administrations, warning against accumulating sovereign debts for projects lacking economic value.
“We can no longer borrow to build bridges and highways that lead nowhere when the internet is the highway of the future,” he stated.
On security, Kachikwu vowed to confront terrorists, kidnappers and criminal gangs with overwhelming force, promising to arm willing citizens to defend communities while pursuing sponsors of violent groups.
“We will confront them headlong and destroy them. This war will be fought on our terms,” he said.
“We will arm all the willing and able to rid our nation of these foreign invaders. We will take the fight to their camps as we arrest and prosecute their sponsors.”
He further promised to restore the dignity of human life and tackle ritual killings, kidnapping and internet fraud through economic empowerment and stricter law enforcement.
The presidential candidate also criticised the administration of President Bola Tinubu, accusing it of “weaponizing poverty and hunger,” while faulting opposition parties for failing to provide practical alternatives.
He said, “The Nigerian people need to know what we will do different from President Tinubu. They are tired of an inept and incompetent opposition that plays politics with our collective sorrows.
“This election should be a contest of ideas and not campaigns of calumny.”
Kachikwu said his faction deliberately refused to join what he termed “the coalition of the old fighting the old,” insisting that Nigeria required fresh thinking rather than recycled political battles.
Meanwhile, the convention also witnessed a major leadership shake-up within the ADC faction, with the emergence of Muhammad Bashir Abdulkadir as national chairman under a newly announced structure.
The faction claimed to have dissolved a rival National Working Committee allegedly aligned with former Senate President David Mark and former Osun State governor Rauf Aregbesola.
In his remarks, Abdulkadir described the convention as a turning point in the party’s survival, accusing unnamed interests of attempting to hijack the ADC for personal political battles.
“This is not a private organization. It is a political party governed by rules, and nobody is bigger than the constitution,” he declared.
Chairman of the faction’s state chairmen, Kingsley Temitope Oga, also described the gathering as a defining “survival moment” for the party, saying months of internal disputes had tested the ADC’s cohesion.
“Today, we can proudly say ADC has survived, matured and risen stronger,” Oga stated.
Despite the declarations of unity, moments of disagreement and interruption reportedly surfaced during the convention, underscoring lingering tensions within the opposition party ahead of the 2027 elections.
(FROM: THISDAY)
