The African Democratic Congress (ADC) in Enugu State has said that the South-East will not support President Bola Tinubu in the 2027 presidential election, despite alleged threats that the region may lose federal infrastructure projects if it fails to vote for him.
The party dared the Minister of Works, David Umahi, to “do his worst”, stressing that no amount of intimidation or political pressure would make the people of the zone support Tinubu’s re-election bid.
The ADC was reacting to comments allegedly made by Umahi during an inspection of federal road and bridge projects in Ebonyi State.
The minister was said to have urged the South-East to support Tinubu in 2027 or lose ongoing projects from the federal government.
Adolphus Ude, ADC Enugu State Secretary, in a statement, described the comments credited to Umahi as “reckless, irresponsible and unacceptable.”
Ude, a former founding Deputy Chairman of the All Progressives Congress in Enugu State, accused the minister of trying to blackmail the South-East into supporting Tinubu.
He says the region’s people are politically independent and can’t be forced to vote for any candidate against their will.
He said Umahi’s alleged comment was a case of talking down on the people of the South-East.
“Umahi should state the major infrastructure projects being executed by the Tinubu government in the South-East and their locations and value,” the ADC chieftain said.
Ude also took Umahi’s claim that the Tinubu administration had addressed the marginalisation of the South-East to task.
He argued the exclusion of the region had worsened under the current Federal Government.
He accused the administration of not completing the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway and Sokoto-Badagry Highway, the flagship infrastructure projects in the South-East.
He said most of the projects being cited by Umahi were inherited from previous administrations, and could not be presented as new achievements of the Tinubu government in the region.
There is no significant new federal infrastructure project currently ongoing in the South-East, said Ude.
“The long-awaited dredging of the River Niger is not taking place, the South-East has no rail line,” he said. So, what projects are at risk?
The ADC secretary also accused the Tinubu administration of continuing to marginalise the South-East as the most marginalised geopolitical zone.
He said that the region had only five ministers in the Federal Executive Council, three of whom were Ministers of State.
Ude also alleged that passport issuing machines had been deactivated throughout the South-East, forcing residents of the region to travel to Abuja for international passports.
He contended that the zone has not had the benefit of the kind of federal attention that would require Umahi’s appeal for political backing.
He said development projects were not a favour to any region but a constitutional responsibility of the Federal Government.
ADC: South East Owes Tinubu No Loyalty
Ude said the South-East had no political loyalty to Tinubu, recalling that the President lost the five states of the region in the 2023 presidential election.
He said nothing had happened since then to alter the political mood of the people ahead of the 2027 polls.
The ADC chieftain stressed that voters in the South-East would decide based on governance, fairness, inclusion and performance and not on threats from any political office holder.
He said no minister had a right to intimidate a region over projects with public money.
Ude called on Umahi to retract the alleged threat and apologise to Ndigbo.
The minister should stop portraying federal projects as political rewards for loyalty to the ruling party, he said.
ADC secretary added that the South-East would not be blackmailed into supporting any candidate in 2027.
He said that the people of the region would continue to demand equity, justice and genuine development from the Federal Government irrespective of their voting pattern.
