There is no automatic presidential ticket for any aspirant in 2027, the African Democratic Congress (ADC) clarified yesterday.

According to the party, while the consensus option would be adopted in selecting the standard bearer, members would resort to open, competitive and transparent primary, if the option fails.

ADC National Publicity Secretary, Bolaji Abdullahi, who spoke on a national television, noted the growing speculation, intrigues, coalition negotiations and the defection of prominent politicians from other parties to the ADC.

However, he said that no decision has been taken on who will fly the presidential ticket, adding that all aspirants are eligible.

Abdullahi stressed: “No conversation is going on at the moment about who will be the standard bearer or who will be running mate to who. Every single issue has not been resolved regarding who will fly the flag of the party in 2027.”

Already, two chieftains, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and former Anambra State Governor Peter Obi, who joined the party last week, are believed to be eyeing the ticket.

Although the Atiku camp has maintained silence on his ambition, members of the Obedient Movement, who are Obi’s followers, declared yesterday that he would not play the second fiddle.

The National Coordinator, Dr Yinusa Tanko, said Obi is the leading aspirant who will never accept to be running mate to anybody in the party.

The Publicity Secretary said that when the time comes, the first option would be consensus, driven by the need to build a broad-based and winning coalition.

He added: “But when that time comes, we are going to have a position, and our first recourse will be to try to engineer a measure of consensus based on the challenges that we have ahead of us. We are building a coalition, and we are building a winning coalition.”

Abdullahi said if consensus proves impossible, the party would not hesitate to conduct a primary that meet democratic standards.

He said: “If that doesn’t happen, of course, we are going to have competitive primary, and it’s going to be free, it’s going to be open, and it’s going to be transparent, and every Nigerian will see that this is the direction that ADC wants to go, as a party of rules, as a party that is transparent, that obeys its own laws and regulation.”