Ahead of the 2027 general election, the African Democratic Congress, ADC, has dismissed the endorsement of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the All Progressive Congress, APC, for re-election by former Governor of Enugu State, Mr. Sullivan Chime.
A leader of ADC, Comrade Adolphus Ude said this in a statement issued on Wednesday in Enugu.
Describing the endorsement as inconsequential and self-seeking, Ude, who is the National Coordinator of ADC Like-Minds, said Chime neither has a political machine nor the grassroots presence to deliver anybody in his ward in Udi town, not to speak of the entire South-East Nigeria.
He said contrary to the claim made by Chime that APC has no alternative in the South-East, the suffering masses of the region have embraced ADC as the people-oriented movement to save them from the maladministration of the ruling party.
According to him, ADC is rooted at the grassroots, and its membership comprises the marginalised people of Nigeria who are uncared for and being dehumanised by the maladministration of APC government in South-East and Nigeria in general.
Ude stated that: “Sullivan Chime’s endorsement of Tinubu, besides being inconsequential, is also self-seeking. I was the Deputy Chairman of APC in Enugu State when Sullivan was admitted into the party by the then-National Chairman, His Excellency, John Odigie Oyegun, who is now a leader in ADC. Sullivan is a living testimony of former Chairman, Adam’s Oshiomhole’s popular quotation then that ‘if you join APC, your sins are forgiven’.
“Secondly, while I was the Deputy Chairman of APC, Sullivan with all the money he made as the Governor of Enugu State for eight years from 2007 to 2015, did not contribute shishi (a dime) to the party.”
He described Chime’s purported endorsement of Tinubu as mere grandstanding and an attempt by an expired politician to get cheap recognition by the presidency and the APC national leadership, which he obviously does not deserve.
According to him, even as a sitting governor, Sullivan chickened out of his senatorial ambition, leaving Ekweremadu to return to the Senate for a fourth term, a record yet to be broken by any Senator in the entire South-East geo-political zone.
He maintained that Chime has no grassroots influence and is incapable of constituting a threat to ADC, which is more grassroots oriented than APC.
Ude added: “For him to say that we do not have an alternative party in Enugu State is not true. ADC is the alternative party, as far as the forthcoming general election is concerned in the entire South-East region.
“These endorsements by former this and that should be disregarded by the public. The suffering masses in the South-East who are being taxed to death, have not endorsed anybody.”
Recall that Chime two days ago threw his weight behind last weekend’s endorsement of President Tinubu for a second term in office by South-East governors, as well as leaders and stakeholders of the APC in the region, saying that the President has done well.
Chime did not nurse any doubt that Tinubu and the APC would sweep the polls in the South-East come 2007.
