BY AHMED AKANBI
The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has declared that the 2027 presidential election is former Vice President Atiku Abubakar’s turn.
The statement echoes President Bola Tinubu’s controversial ‘Emilokan’ – It is my turn – slogan during the 2023 campaign.
Director of Media and Publicity of the ADC Presidential Campaign Council, Kola Ologbondiyan, made the remark on Channels Television’s Politics Today.
”Nigerians know, Nigerians are aware that 2027 is Atiku’s turn,” Ologbondiyan said.
He argued that other politicians were now adopting ideas Atiku had long advocated.
Ologbondiyan cited Atiku’s proposal to develop seaports in Southern Nigeria to decongest Lagos, saying others only began promoting similar ideas after the former vice president raised them.
”Until the candidate came out and said, ‘Oh, the ports in the South will open up and develop their ports, so everybody will not need to come and converge on Lagos alone,'” he said.
”It is every programme that he speaks about that they run after,” Ologbondiyan added, insisting Nigerians recognise that 2027 belongs to Atiku.
The comment comes amid early positioning ahead of the 2027 polls, with Atiku and other opposition figures lining up to challenge Tinubu’s re-election bid.
Reacting on X, Minister of Aviation Festus Keyamo wrote: “To permanently retire…”
Ologbondiyan’s declaration recalls Tinubu’s famous Emilokan speech on June 2, 2022, in Abeokuta, where he told APC delegates, “It is the turn of Yoruba, it is my turn,” arguing he deserved the ticket after helping Muhammadu Buhari win in 2015.
That slogan became a defining line of Tinubu’s campaign, drawing both support and criticism as entitlement politics, a point cleric Tunde Bakare warned against in August 2023, saying it could encourage an imperial Presidency.
Now ADC is reviving similar turn-taking language to frame Atiku’s 2027 bid.