We received phone call from Buhari’s grave to vote Atiku — Ex-Minister Dalung
Abdullateef Fowewe
A former Minister of Sports and Youth Development, Solomon Dalung, has claimed that supporters of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) received a “phone call from the grave” of former President Muhammadu Buhari, urging them to vote for the party’s presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, in the 2027 election.
Dalung, an ADC chieftain, made the remark on Thursday during an appearance on Channels Television’s Politics Today.
He linked the claim to a recent visit by Buhari’s widow, Aisha Buhari, to Atiku in Abuja, which he described as evidence that the late president’s political support had shifted to the former vice-president.
“Last month you saw when the wife of the late president visited Atiku in Abuja. The message she took for any politician to know is that the 12 million votes have been successfully transferred. We have had a phone call from the grave of Buhari that we should vote for Atiku,” Dalung said.
He argued that Atiku had inherited the political structures of both Buhari and former President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, giving him what he described as a nationwide political network.
Dalung’s statement appeared to be a rhetorical claim rather than a literal assertion of supernatural communication; reports characterised the “phone call from the grave” as symbolic language about Buhari’s perceived political legacy.
Tinubu ‘cannot defeat’ Atiku
The former minister dismissed the possibility of President Bola Tinubu defeating Atiku in 2027, saying the ADC candidate would remain difficult to overcome even if the ruling party prevented the opposition from campaigning.
“I am confident that as events are unfolding, Tinubu, even if he would take over the ADC secretariat and stop ADC from campaigning, he cannot defeat Atiku Abubakar in 2027,” he said.
Dalung also alleged that Tinubu was afraid of the 2027 contest.
“I have never seen a weak president in an election like Bola Ahmed Tinubu. If you drag anybody on the street and put him on a ballot at a contest with Tinubu, he will defeat him,” he said.
Buhari, who led Nigeria as military ruler from 1983 to 1985 and as elected president from 2015 to 2023, died on July 13, 2025, in a London clinic.
His political base was widely associated with northern Nigeria, and Dalung’s “12 million votes” claim refers to the scale of support Buhari was believed to command rather than a formally transferable electoral bloc.
Atiku is the ADC’s presidential candidate for the 2027 election, having previously contested the 2023 election on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
His candidacy, however, faces a major legal challenge: on November 5, a Federal High Court in Abuja nullified the David Mark-led ADC leadership and the process that produced Atiku as the party’s candidate.
Despite the ruling, Atiku has said he will remain in the race, while the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has indicated that it would comply with any court decision on his eligibility.
