Activist lawyer Maduabuchi Idam has urged Rotimi Amaechi, the runner-up in the African Democratic Congress (ADC) presidential primary, to express gratitude toward Peter Obi for leaving the party prior to the contest. According to Idam, Obi’s departure spared Amaechi a more embarrassing outcome—a possible third-place finish in the race.
In a statement released on Friday, Idam remarked that both Amaechi and former President Goodluck Jonathan should acknowledge their own greed and lack of appreciation for the opportunities they have received. He noted that Amaechi’s second-place finish behind former Vice President Atiku Abubakar was entirely predictable and that even without any financial inducements for delegates, Atiku would have secured a landslide victory.
Idam argued that Amaechi had no genuine expectation of winning, unless he was deceiving himself. He claimed that if Obi had stayed in the ADC, Amaechi would have been relegated to a distant third position. The lawyer observed that history would record Amaechi as a two-time presidential runner-up without capturing the full context of his defeats.
Turning his attention to Atiku, Idam dismissed the former Vice President’s persistence as a political obsession bordering on existential necessity. He asserted that Atiku would continue contesting indefinitely, regardless of electoral zoning or public sentiment, until nature itself forces him to stop. Idam concluded by expressing hope that Nigeria would eventually liberate itself from the influence of kleptocrats and entrenched power brokers.