Aide Dumps Atiku, Canvasses Support for Southern Candidate

Aide Dumps Atiku, Canvasses Support for Southern Candidate

Chuks Okocha

The campaign for the PDP to field a southern presidential candidate has continued as one of the spokesperson for the former vice president, Atiku Abubakar, Kassim Afegbua has dumped him, saying that he is already an expired politician and should mentor a younger person.

In an interview with THISDAY, Afegbua said, “The politics of 2023 has started in earnest but the point must be made that the PDP and APC must as a matter of justice, equity and fairplay, ensure that both candidates are of Southern extraction. All the claims about demographics are part of the larger plot to deny the south their rightful place in the scheme of things.”, he stated.

Afegbua explained that from 1999 till date, it had always been north/south divide, and having allowed the north the opportunity to represent the PDP in 2019, it is law of natural justice to also allow the south present its on candidate in the 2023 general election.

He further explained, “We cannot continue to promote the aspiration of one man, under the false premise that he alone has the stamina and capacity to rein in the votes. That cannot be the true reflection of the reality on ground.

“The PDP must be resolute in ensuring that it gets everyone to buy into fairness, equity and justice. That is the way to move forward. Alhaji Atiku Abubakar should allow much younger Nigerians from the South to represent the party.

“At 77 in 2023, it will be counter-producrive to feature him again as though the flag of the party is .meant for him alone. At such age, retirement has set in, capacity to work long hours would be impaired, and it would be pointless allowing another president Buhari to succeed the current system of waning strength.”the former Spokesman of Atiku Abubakar in the 2019 presidential election stated.

He called on the PDP to work harmoniously like a team to project a southern candidate to balance emotions, sentiments and political calculations, explaining that all those nebulous claims of saying there is skewed arrangement between the North and South based on the number of years in government do not hold water.

He said, “To allow the north a straight run of 16 years in power as the present arrangement tends to suggest, is to finally kill the bond between the North and the south. Politics is all about constructive engagement and collective bargaining, but this idea of thinking the votes are skewed in favour of the north is very unempirical.

“The demographics do not support such over generalisation of the real statistics. The PDP already has its national chairman in the north, it is only natural to allow the south produce the presidential candidate. That is what will entrench a culture of fairness and equity in the political equations of the country. Please tell Alhaji Atiku Abubakar to behave like an elder statesman by quiting the race and work towards building an enduring legacy of fairness and justice.

“We cannot afford to repeat the mistake of 2019 when the PDP candidate abandoned his troops and eloped to Dubai for two solid years, thus exposing his supporters to the vagaries of all the machinations, plots and manipulations and open threats which dominated the politics of 2019. We need vibrant young minds in the south to fly the flag of the party.”, Afegbua said.

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