•Says Atiku’ll do things differently as listening president
•Ekiti SDP, PDP leaders unite, promise to deliver ex-vp
Chuks Okocha in Abuja and Gbenga Sodeinde in Ado Ekiti
The Atiku/Okowa Presidential Campaign Organisation, yesterday, charged Nigerians to see the February 25, 2023 presidential election as an opportunity to deal the All Progressives Congress (APC) and its Presidential Candidate, Bola Tinubu, a devastating electoral punch for the anguish, pain, sufferings, mass killings and untold hardships they visited on Nigerians in the almost eight years of the APC administration.
At the same time, the PDP Presidential Campaign Council has said its presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, would do things differently as president, especially that he is a listening leader.
This is as the PDP leadership has accused the Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, of killing democracy in the state and country by hounding people, who disagreed with his views.
In a related development, former PDP leaders, who formed bunch of the leadership of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), on Monday, joined their counterparts in the PDP to agree on the choice of the former vice-president as their consensus candidate in the February 25 presidential election.
In statement by one of the spokespersons of the campaign, Kola Ologbondiyan, the organisation urged Nigerians to recompense the APC with a humiliating defeat for its wickedness by voting en masse for Atiku, whom it claimed, embodied the hope for a new lease of life in the country.
“Our campaign stresses that Nigerians cannot afford to gloss over the horrible experiences, which they have been made to endure in almost eight years of APC, the administration, which Tinubu claimed to have unilaterally foisted upon our country.
“Nigerians should approach the ballot box with a determination to repay the APC and Tinubu for the devastation they caused our country by opening her to terrorists and marauders to kill and maim our compatriots, rape our women and took Nigerians into slavery in their own country.
“The APC took pleasure in watching the killing of innocent Nigerians, including the massacre of our youths during the EndSars Protest of October 2020; the APC also turned our nation into a large killing field, brought a near fascist regime and foisted a terrible siege mentality on the people.
“Nigerians must go to the presidential election with the consciousness of how the arrogant, abusive, insensitive, corrupt and incompetent APC and its Presidential Candidate viciously pillaged our national patrimony, turned the revenue generating agencies into their cash cows, wrecked the once robust economy, which was hitherto rated as one of the fastest growing in the world, ruined our productive sectors, took away jobs from our youths and turned our nation into the poverty capital of the world, where over 100 million Nigerians can no longer afford their daily meals and other basic necessities of life,” Ologbondiyan said.
Also speaking with THISDAY, Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to Atiku, Tunde Olusunle, said, “We can assure you that Nigerians can expect, and duly be served a listening, accessible, caring and performing presidency under Atiku Abubakar. A PDP government under Atiku will be responsive, responsible and proactive, if given the opportunity come Saturday.”
Olusunle said, “Atiku has always, and continuously, respected our religious plurality. On every occasion he got the ticket of a party to contest, he ensured immediate and instantaneous regard for Christians. From Ben Obi, who was once his running mate, to Peter Obi, to Ifeanyi Okowa, Atiku has always been spontaneously circumspect and pragmatic. We can expect an Atiku government that will speedily reset, reorder and reorganise our fractured and discombobulated polity.
“One of the popular slogans on the Atiku political trail, is that he will unify Nigeria. All of a sudden, under the APC government, Nigerians began to think of themselves along ethnic and religious lines. This is not how we have always been. But when a president constitutes a federal cabinet of 42 ministers and appropriates 10 topmost portfolios to his own geopolitical zone, nepotism cannot have a better name.
“Or how do you describe it when the ministers of finance, defence, police affairs, agriculture, justice, water resources, disaster management and humanitarian services, aviation, even petroleum which has the president as substantive minister, are from one zone?
“When you run through the list of members of the National Security Council, (NSC) and you find 80 per cent, if not 90 per cent of the constituents from a particular section of the country and of a particular faith, nothing can be more upsetting. Atiku served in an Obasanjo government, where the inauguration of the National Security Council had to be delayed for a few days, to ensure that the south east geopolitical zone was duly accommodated in the scheme, in 1999. That is the kind of fairness and equity Atiku will bring to Nigeria,” he stated.
Wike is a Threat to Nation’s Democracy, Says PDP
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), yesterday, accused the Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, of killing democracy in the state and country by hounding people, who disagreed with his views.
The party, therefore, urged the people of the state and Nigerians to vote Atiku-Okowa ticket to rescue the nation from its current travails.
One of the spokesmen of the PDP Presidential Campaign Council, Mr. Charles Aniagwu, who stated this at a news conference, in Asaba, Delta State, said despite Wike’s opposition to Atiku-Okowa ticket, the party’s presidential candidate would not haunt the Rivers Governor or any of his allies for not supporting him.
He sammed the Rivers governor for criticising Atiku’s meeting with Rivers leaders in Abuja and blamed him for making it impossible for the party to hold its presidential campaign in the state.
“Wike is quarrelling on why we are meeting the Rivers State people outside the state and claiming that those persons are not Rivers people. We met with critical stakeholders of Rivers, who we believe would be able to talk to their people in Rivers for them to understand that Atiku and Okowa value them.
“But that Wike made it practically impossible for us to come to Rivers to campaign. And because we do believe that if we want to come to Rivers to campaign, given Wike’s position, he could take steps that would undermine the survival of a number of persons. That we are not ready to do.
“This is because we are very clear on the fact that our ambition is not worth the life of anybody, no matter how lowly placed that person may be. But we do know that our people in Rivers are very clear on the fact that Atiku means well.
“If Wike, rather than adding value to the human resources in Rivers, continues to deploy its resources to begin to insult every well-meaning Nigerian, who has disagreed with him; Atiku is not going to take that path.
“We will by the grace of God, embark on the process of recovery, embark on the process of developing all parts of this country and making every Nigerian, including our brothers in Rivers, feel that they are Nigerians.”
Ekiti SDP, PDP leaders unite over Atiku, promise to deliver
The chances of the PDP Presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, received a boost recently as former PDP leaders, who formed the bunch of the leadership of Social Democratic Party (SDP), on Monday, joined their counterparts in the PDP to agree on the choice of the former vice-president as their consensus candidate in the February 25 presidential election.
Converging on the Atiku Presidential Campaign Office in Ado Ekiti, it was a home coming as the leaders relish old times and camaraderie amongst them.
Addressing the gathering, an elated Caretaker Committee Chairman of the Ekiti State PDP, Sadiq Obanoyen, applauded the SDP leaders for coming back home and hearkening the voice of reason.
He thanked the leaders for rallying round at this time to ensure Atiku rescues the long suffering Nigerian people from the quagmire the APC has put them, stressing that history would be on their side.
Speaking with newsmen on the sidelines of the meeting, the Director General of the Atiku Presidential Campaign (Ekiti Central Senatorial District), Chief Dipo Anisulowo, said the gathering of the PDP and SDP chieftains was geared towards delivering the chunk of Ekiti votes for Atiku Abubakar in the coming election.
