Atiku Abubakar
A former Vice President of Nigeria, Atiku Abubakar has been urged to set aside his ambition to become President in 2023.
A chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Prince Kassim Afegbua who was Atiku’s spokersperson in the 2019 election said the decision will allow the Southeast the opportunity to produce the next president.
Afegbua urged Atiku to drop his presidential ambition in 2023 and work for zoning of the ticket to the South.
Speaking in an interview with DAILY INDEPENDENT, Afegbua who was the spokesperson of the Atiku Abubakar presidential campaign organisation during the 2019 elections also zoning the PDP to the North will mark another round of political crisis in the country.
Afegbua who said Atiku will be 77 years by 2023 urged him to play the role of a statesman and mentor younger ones for political office rather than struggling to cope with the rigorous work of President as in the case of President Muhammadu Buhari.
The former Commissioner for Information in Edo said ”Ceding the ticket to the North will mark the beginning of another round of political contestation and crisis. True. We cannot afford that luxury now. We need to call a spade, by its very name. It is better avoided than allow selfish political interest to detail the flow of discourse in terms of our political stability”.
“If only Alhaji Atiku can behave like a statesman and bid bye to partisan politics and join his colleagues octogenarians in helping to shape public discourse and mentoring the younger ones for political office”.
“At age 77 in 2023, he would have become older. The bones at such age will be showing signs of exhaustion and weakness. President Buhari recently told Nigerians that working 6 to 8 hours everyday, at age 79, was no joke”.
“That’s the honest truth, and yet you want us to go for another Methuselah again? Please help us beg Alhaji Atiku that it is the turn of the South and he should not use his ambition to thwart the flow of events, help us beg him”
