Forget Presidency, take up BoT Chairmanship, PDP group tells Atiku

Obiora Ifoh, Abuja

A Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) group has advised the 2019 presidential candidate of the party and former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, to abandon any aspiration to bid for the ticket again.

The group, PDP Action 2023, recommends rather that he should seek to become the chairman of the party’s Board of Trustees (BoT) to provide counsel to younger PDP politicians.

In a statement issued Wednesday signed by its Chairman, Hon. Rufus Omeire expressed dismay that since losing the 2019 poll to President Muhammadu Buhari, Atiku had relocated to Dubai and allegedly doing nothing to rebuild the main opposition party.

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The group rejected a situation where he would only resume his association with party members just because the election is around the corner.

The PDP Action 2023, which explained that it exists to “play its appropriate role as the main opposition platform in Nigeria, and is focused on helping to deliver good governance for Nigeria,” affirmed that the current leadership crisis in the former ruling party “is a normal struggle in party politics” as it expressed its belief that the party will emerge stronger.

It admonished that the PDP must present an acceptable candidate to win the 2023 presidential election.

The group noted: “In 2019, the PDP presented Alhaji Atiku Abubakar. He contested against President Buhari and lost. He will be 77 in 2023. It is very shameful that since he lost the presidential election, he moved to Dubai, abandoning all members of PDP, all the stakeholders, and millions of ordinary Nigerians who voted for him and PDP in 2019.

“It is a betrayal of trust for Alhaji Atiku Abubakar to neglect the feelings and sacrifices of ordinary voters who supported him and PDP in 2019.

“Now 2023 elections are once again at hand, he has returned and started politicking once again. Apparently, the only thing he is very good at is politics.”

While noting that the former Vice President has an enormous war chest and “a master of the game of politics,” it however said that “since he came back, he has re-emerged in the spotlight. He visited Governor Wike in Port Harcourt. Moved to Delta to see Gov. Okowa.

“He just attended the funeral of Gov. Okowa’s father and thereafter moved to Edo State to meet Gov. Obaseki, from there he visited Governor Udom Emmanuel of Akwa Ibom state.”

The group maintained that while has been moving about to see political leaders, “however, as the PDP was embroiled in crises, two weeks ago, one would have thought that as the last flag bearer of the party, that he would stay engaged to find a solution. No.”

The statement added that whereas Atiku has the right to associate with whoever he wants “But it smacks of leadership incapacity to fiddle while PDP was burning.”

“We think that time has come for Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, GCON, to step aside and allow others, preferably the younger generation, to step forward.

“He can be asked to take the position of the Chairman PDP Board of Trustees where he will play an advisory role to younger politicians, as an elder statesman,” the group asserted.