By Luminous Jannamike
ABUJA — The Vice-Presidential Candidate of the African Democratic Congress, ADC, Rotimi Amaechi, has said women will determine the outcome of the party’s battle against the All Progressives Congress, APC, in the 2027 general election, charging them to take the campaign into their wards and polling units.
Amaechi, who recalled how women were mobilised during the campaign that brought the APC to power, said the ADC must replicate that grassroots strategy if it hopes to dislodge the ruling party.
He spoke on Wednesday at the ADC National Women League Conference at the Shehu Musa Yar’Adua Centre, Abuja, alongside Hajiya Titi Atiku-Abubakar, wife of the party’s presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, and the Director-General and Campaign Manager of the Presidential Campaign Management Committee, Senator Austin Akobundu.
“The struggle to take away these (alleged) thieves from government is 90% dependent on our women,” Amaechi said.
Recalling the APC’s campaign against the then ruling party, he said women were deliberately mobilised and placed at the forefront of the movement, arguing that their participation would again be critical to the ADC’s 2027 campaign.
“When we were in APC and we wanted to remove your government, you saw what we did. We brought out the women, in every state we went to, women were in front. We spoke to them, we met with them at night, and we made sure that we told them that if they did not come out to vote, we would not win. And they came out. We fought the war, and we won,” he said.
The former Rivers State governor tied the proposed mobilisation to what he described as worsening economic hardship, citing food prices, school fees, unemployment and the rising number of out-of-school children.
Amaechi claimed that the number of out-of-school children had risen from between 10 million and 12 million when he left government to about 20 million currently, while the number of illiterate Nigerians had reached 92 million.
He particularly urged women in the North to take the 2027 election seriously, alleging that the region accounted for a large proportion of the country’s out-of-school and illiterate population.
“If you’re a northern and you’re sitting here, you shouldn’t even be singing at all. Reason Tinubu is taking you more every day into poverty. It means that before you meet up with the South, Jesus Christ for us Christians would have come,” Amaechi said.
He challenged the women to turn their political participation into votes at ward level, saying the party’s target should go beyond its ‘one to 10’ mobilisation strategy.
“This one to 10 is small. You should bring 2000 votes per ward. Just win your ward. Just bring 2000 votes per ward. You are bringing 17 million votes and we have won the election,” he said.
Amaechi also said the ADC would campaign for its governorship candidates across the country, arguing that winning the presidency without controlling state governments would limit the ability of an incoming administration to implement its agenda.
“The presidential candidate cannot govern without the governor,” he said.
On the economy, he criticised the removal of fuel subsidy, arguing that the policy had pushed up the cost of transportation and production and, by extension, the prices of food and other goods.
He said the ADC’s proposed return of subsidy would focus on production, with government supporting domestic refiners in a way that would lower the cost of petroleum products for consumers.
“It affects the price of rice. It affects the man who is a barber. It affects even you who goes to buy ADC clothes, you know that ADC clothes you are wearing, the price has changed terribly,” Amaechi said.
He said the party’s argument should be taken directly to voters as part of its campaign against the APC.
“Once you tell the people that this man is the man who has impoverished you, and you see one bad thing about subsidy is that the benefit of subsidy is in their pocket, not even the pocket of Nigerians,” he said.
Earlier, Titi Atiku-Abubakar urged women to mobilise voters across the country, particularly in rural communities, and resist attempts to influence their votes with temporary relief such as food or cash.
She said the rising cost of living was already putting pressure on families, citing increases in the prices of medicines, petrol and other essentials.
“Women, this time around we have to get it right,” she said.
Titi also alleged that some voters were being encouraged to surrender their voter cards in exchange for money or food, warning that such temporary assistance could not address the underlying economic hardship.
“This rice they are giving, how long is it going to last? Even if they give you 50,000. How long is this 50,000 going to last?” she asked.
She urged women to mobilise voters to the polling booths and defend their right to choose their leaders, saying the 2027 election should be approached as a fight for the future of their children.
“Go there and fight for your children. Go there and fight for generation yet unborn,” she said.
Akobundu said the women and youth wings were central to the ADC’s planned grassroots mobilisation, adding that the party would move its campaign structure from the national level to local governments, wards and polling units.
“We created two vibrant leagues: the women and the youth,” he said.
He urged supporters attending the conference to return to their respective communities and build the party’s grassroots structure, saying the campaign would depend on converting national enthusiasm into votes at polling-unit level.
“Abuja will be empty. Abuja will be zero. Everybody will go down to his local government, to his ward, to his polling unit to bring about the multiplier effect of bringing voters,” Akobundu said.
He assured the women and youths of the support of the presidential campaign structure, saying their mobilisation would be central to the ADC’s 2027 campaign.
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