By Augustine Akhilomen
…Says Salvaging Nigerians Out Of Present Hardship More Important Than Individual Ambitions
All things being equal, the trio of PDP’s Atiku Abubakar, Labour Party’s Peter Obi, and Rabiu Kwankwaso of the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) would put personal interests aside and form a formidable alliance to defeat President Bola Tinubu and the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) come 2027.
This was made known on Monday by PDP deputy national spokesman Ibrahim Abdullahi during an interview on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily.
He noted that the party would have defeated APC in 2023 had it been high-ranking party members such as former Rivers State governor Nyesom Wike, Kwankwaso, and Obi worked together to form an alliance.
Recall that Obi and Kwankwaso were PDP members months before the last poll but cited irreconciliable differences as reasons they exited the party.
“We’ve lost Kwankwaso, we’ve lost Peter Obi, all of these people; imagine if they were in the party; we would have gone to win the elections.
“This APC said they defeated us with one million plus (votes); just one of these names that I mentioned would have covered that gap for us, and we would have been in power today, and certainly Nigerians would not have been confronted with this despair and despondency in the land.”
Asked if the PDP is trying to get Obi, Kwankwaso, Wike, and others back into the party, Abdullahi said, “Sure, discussion is ongoing. You will see Peter Obi discussing with Atiku; you will see Peter Obi meeting with Nasir El-Rufai.
“Party management is a very difficult thing, and we are doing the best in the quagmire that we have found ourselves in. Rest assured, there would be light at the end of the tunnel. We have learned our lessons in a bitter way.”
Abdullahi also sais that salvaging Nigerians out of the present hardship is more important than the individual ambitions of the trio.
He also said that one of the three candidates will have to step down for the other in order to have a sense of direction.
“One of them would concede for the other, and then we would have a direction.
“Our concern as a party and to these people that I have mentioned is to ensure that we salvage Nigerians from this despair and despondency, between maladies of hunger and frightening insecurity in the land. You could see cluelessness and ineptitude on the part of these people managing this country.”
He said, “Atiku is saying if it is better for him to get Nigeria out of this hopelessness, he would do so.
“He (Atiku) must not be in the race. Atiku is saying that it is an entitlement to him as a democrat; the constitution provides for him that he could contest at any time.
“What he is trying to say is that there is no ceiling stopping him from contesting. That is his fundamental democratic right, but he is not saying that he will force it on the throat of the party or the country.
“I am telling you clearly: Peter Obi is suitably qualified; he can aspire, and we will support him if he gets the ticket. Atiku is suitably qualified, and if he gets the ticket, we will rally behind him and give him the desired support to salvage Nigerians out of this situation.”
