A chieftain of the opposition party, Prince Kassim Afegbua has said former vice president Atiku Abubakar, will not get its presidential ticket in 2023.
Atiku had after a visit to Olusegun Obasanjo claimed that he would get the PDP presidential ticket in 2023 as he did in 2019.
Afegbua, a former ally of Atiku and one-time commissioner for information in Edo State, said in a statement on Sunday that Atiku was missing in the major outings of the party and cannot, therefore secure its ticket. He mentioned recent off-season elections in three states where Atiku did not feature in the party’s campaigns.
He said, “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 presidential aspiration.
“The party did a by-election in Cross River State, we didn’t see Alhaji Atiku Abubakar during the campaigns. There was a by-election in Akure, Ondo State, yet we did not see Alhaji Abubakar there. There was a by-election in Imo State, we didn’t see Alhaji Abubakar at the campaigns. All that matters to him is all about the presidential ticket of the party.” Afegbua reminded the former flagbearer of the PDP, that since its formation, he had only represented the party once; in the 2019 presidential contest.
He said, “So, the claim that he had always gotten the ticket of the party is a big lie. In 2007, when he attempted the ticket of the party, he was shown the exit door. In 2011, he used another party platform to pursue his ambition. In 2015, yet again, he tried to use the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and he was beaten roundly at the Lagos convention.
“That was the primary election that saw the emergence of General Muhammadu Buhari as the candidate of the APC. 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 an 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,” he said.”
Afegbua insisted that it is the turn of the southern part of Nigeria to produce the candidate of the PDP in 2023.
He said anything short of that will amount to usurping the opportunity, position and chance of the southern axis to produce the party’s candidate, noting that will be a “direct assault on our collective sensibilities. In 2023, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar should be thinking of how to support younger Nigerians from the south of the country to pursue the presidential aspiration of the opposition party. Alhaji Atiku has always supported zoning and should not play the ostrich this time because of his aspiration. Power cannot reside in the northern axis for 16 unbroken years. That will be against the normative order, against justice, fairness and equity. The opposition PDP must copy from the ruling APC in ceding its ticket to the south as a form of gentleman agreement that will promote peace, unity, cohesion and collective responsibility within the party.
“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 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,” he said.
