2023: Southern PDP Leaders Reject Former Vice President
By Lanre Olaleye
This indication became rife following what appears as a direct move by Southern leaders of the party to stop the former president from flying the party's flag again at the 2023 presidential election.
Atiku who lost the 2019 presidential election to President Muhamadu Buhari is bidding for the PDP presidential ticket again in 2023. He had boasted he would always pick the party's ticket.
However, Atiku's boast seems to have drawn the ire of Southern leaders of the party who have drawn up a plan to stop him from getting the party's ticket at the forthcoming presidential primary.
Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike, one of the prominent leaders of the party in the South had given the hint of the shock that awaits the former Vice President when he lampooned him for taking the delegates of the party for granted.
Wike, who spoke over the weekend in Port Harcourt on the heels of Atiku's statement
said the outcome of the PDP presidential primaries would shock Nigerians, noting that whoever emerges among the aspirants should rest assured that the entire party would rally around and make sure that he wins the 2023 presidential election.
According to a statement by his Special Assistant on Media, Kelvin Ebiri, Wike said: “I didn’t expect him frankly speaking to say that he will always take the ticket of the party. That is going too far and taking the delegates for granted.
He added: “People should watch, there will be a shock as far as PDP convention is concerned. People should watch what is going to happen. People like to underrate so many persons and it is not good in politics.”
Echoing Wike's disdain for Atiku's boastful statement is another Southern leader of the party from Edo State, Kazeem Afegbua who also aimed a dig at the former Vice President.
He said the party could not afford to make the same mistake it made in 2019 when Atiku abandoned all his foot soldiers and sought refuge in faraway Dubai, UAE after he lost the presidential election to President Muhammadu Buhari.
Afegbua made the call in a statement he personally signed yesterday, titled, “PDP 2023: Atiku Abubakar Lied”, in reaction to a statement credited to the former vice president that he always gets the PDP presidential ticket.
He noted that contrary to the claim, Atiku had only represented the party once; in the 2019 presidential contest since the formation of the PDP.
The statement read in part, “I read with dismay the statement credited to former Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar where he boasted that he would always get the presidential ticket of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP). At a time when the former Vice President should be working towards strengthening the structures of the party for more electoral victories, the only thing that bothers him is all about his selfish aspiration.
“It was only in 2019 that Alhaji Atiku Abubakar emerged as the candidate of the PDP at the Port Harcourt convention when it was decided by the Southern aspirants to allow all Northern aspirants to contest the primary election. So, the claim that ‘I will always get the ticket of the PDP flies in the face of logic, fact and reality.”
Afegbua noted that rather than his presidential ambition in 2023, Atiku “should be thinking of how to support young Nigerians from the Southern part of the country to pursue the presidential aspiration of the opposition party.”
The statement added, “We cannot afford the mistake of 2019 when Alhaji Abubakar abandoned all his foot-soldiers and sought refuge in faraway Dubai. A true political General ought to secure his troops and return them to the barracks after the war to carry out a critical assessment before knowing the next step.
“Rather than borrow a leaf from the Ukrainian President, Zelensky, who has been standing by his Ukrainian nationals, to the extent of carrying AK-47 to the battlefront to secure his country from Russian invasion, Alhaji Abubakar ran away to Dubai and exposed all of us to the threats and intimidation of the monstrous APC in 2019.
“Such a leader cannot be trusted with the responsibility of representing our aggregate interest in the struggle for 2023. No amount of closed-door meetings with former leaders can change the oscillation of the political pendulum in 2023.
“Except he’s being deceived, no former president would support an Atiku presidency, at a time they all have spoken loudly about fielding younger President in 2023.”
Investigation revealed that both Wike and Afegbua may be speaking the mind of the generality of Southern leaders of the party as there are growing misgivings for Atiku's candidature ahead of the party presidential primary.
Many are said not to fancy the party's chances against the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) with Atiku flying the party's flag at the presidential election.
To this end, majority of the party leaders are more interested in fielding a younger candidate with unblemish political antecedents for 2023 presidential election.
Wike, according to multiple sources, is said to be leading a search party for a younger element with proven track record within the party.
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