Mentor New Leaders, Quit Politics, Adeyanju Tells Atiku Abubakar
By PHC Telegraph
Former Vice President and Presidential flag bearer of the Peoples Democratic Party, in the 2023 elections, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar has been asked to abandon his persistent quest to clinch the Presidency and instead, go into political retirement.
Urging Atiku to call it quits and turn into a mentor of younger politicians, a rights activist, Deji Adeyanju who is based in the federal capital, Abuja, said the time has come for the former Vice President to bow out gracefully.
Adeyanju’s call for Atiku to take backstage in politics is coming against the backdrop of current efforts that the adept politician is frantically making behind the scene to steamroll a new political alignment among opposition political parties to checkmate the ruling APC in 2027.
Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, the 2023 presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, and one-time Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
The deft political move which made headlines in 2023 appears to have led to the thinking in some political circles that the former vice to President Olusegun Obasanjo might still be nursing another presidential ambition.
“The truth of the matter is that our democracy is fast becoming a one-party system”, Atiku had said at that occasion when leaders of IPAD visited him, “of course, you know that when we have a one-party system, we should just forget about democracy.
“If we don’t come together to challenge what the ruling party is trying to create, our democracy will suffer for it, and the consequences of it will affect the generations yet unborn. The project of protecting democracy in our country is not about just one man”, Atiku added.
Peter Obi of the Labour Party and Rabiu Kwankwaso of the New Nigerian Peoples Party do not seem to be attracted by the offer made by Atiku.
Atiku’s presidential bid in 2023, Adeyanju hinted a few days ago, led to the defeat of the PDP and conspiracies hatched by certain powerful members of the party.
Bola Tinubu, Peter Obi and Atiku Abubakar, the three frontrunners who participated in the 2023 presidential election.
Adeyanju listed Peter Obi, Rabiu Kwankwaso and Nyesom Wike as members of the PDP who were angered by Atiku’s decision to snatch the presidential ticket of the PDP.
The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike. His effort as the Governor of Rivers State in 2023 turned the tide in favour of President Bola Tinubu.
According to the rights campaigner, Atiku’s resolve to contest the presidency in 2023 led to the electoral victory recorded by President Bola Tinubu.
With the PDP at the crossroads, reasons why the party failed are beginning to come to the fore.
Obviously, not many are talking about the primary reason why events played out the way they did.
Atiku against the run of play had snatched what was supposed to be the turn of the South and the place of others who felt that a much younger person within the PDP ought to have earned the right to contest on the platform of the party.