The presidential candidate of the African Democratic
Congress and CEO of Roots TV, Dumebi Kachikwu, on Wednesday revealed his wife
pleaded with him to bribe delegates in the just-concluded primaries to avoid
disgrace.
He said that despite not spending a dime for delegates
before the primary election, he was surprised he defeated aspirants who shared
money to delegates.
Kachukwu revealed these while speaking with journalists in
Abuja. He also said that after his victory, several calls he put to one of his
opponents were not picked nor returned.
He said, “I had a banquet for all the delegates, announced
to them that I was an aspirant but told them I don’t have money, they should
vote their conscience so that if I win, my conscience will be free that I
didn’t pay.
“If I lose, I have my business to go back to. So I don’t
have to be a President to work for Nigeria. I left them that night, not knowing
what my fate would be.
“I announced to them that I was not going to give anybody
money. Some were upset, I left them not knowing what my fate was. My opponents
shared money to delegates. In the morning of next day, my wife said, ‘please
spend this money on delegates to avoid disgrace, you have it’ and I told her my
conscience forbids that. I thought it was over, I was already delivering my
speech accepting defeat when I saw that the body language of the delegates have
changed, they were smiling with me.
“The most painful thing was to see losers go to the media to
desecrate the process which produced me. They were telling lies to the public.
“I called one of the
aspirants that I was coming, he said he wasn’t around Abuja but in Lagos. I
flew to Lagos to see him, since then he didn’t take his calls.”
He also expressed fears over the 2023 elections, saying
about 50 million Nigerians who are members of the middle class in urban areas
do not participate in elections because of apathy.
“A country that has the kind of problems we have, we should
respond to emergencies. The apathy in government is all time high. It is the
reason why the same people continue to come back to governance. About 50
million people don’t take part in democratic governance”, he said.
While acknowledging that there is a very big task ahead,
Kachukwu said, “Nigeria is condemned with selfishness and there’s need to
change the way people act, think and reason.”
Kachukwu called on the media to assist him in the rescue
mission to salvage Nigeria.
“There’s no common vision tying us as a people, that’s why
we kill ourselves everyday. The media should give me a chance to run a race and
Nigeria will be better for it. If I’m made the President of Nigeria, I will
make a country that works for everyone.”
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