Bola Ahmed Tinubu, former Governor of Lagos State and presidential candidate of the Ruling APC have taken a swipe at the main opposition PDP presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar, noting that “Instead of being a unifier, Atiku is now a divider-in-chief” for “violating his party’s code for power rotation”.
WHAT WE KNOW
In what appears like a mockery, the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC), Presidential candidate, Bola Ahmed Tinubu has said that PDP Atiku Abubakar’s bid to be Nigerian next president is crumbling due to his unending bickering with Nyesom Wike of Rivers State.
Tinubu mocked Atiku as the divider-in-chief rather than the unifier he claims to be. He therefore asked Atiku to kiss his presidential bid good bye.
Tinubu who noted that the PDP campaign is in disarray, said the signs are too clear, especially with the report by the Economic Intelligence Unit predicting yet another loss for Atiku Abubakar in the February presidential election.
The APC presidential candidate noted how Atiku Abubakar manipulated his party rotational convention without been sensitive to the North and South divide.
Tinubu predicted that given the current PDP crisis, Atiku Abubakar bid will yet suffer a stillbirth. He also accused the PDP candidate of not having new program for Nigeria, other than what he claims the APC is already implementing.
NOTABLE QUOTES
APC Presidential Candidate Bola Ahmed Tinubu, in his statement by his Presidential Campaign Council media Director, Bayo Onanuga said:
“Once again, another bid for the presidency of our country by former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar is slipping away. This is unraveling before our very eyes even before the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) blows the whistle for electioneering campaign”
“After violating his party’s code for power rotation between the north and south and grabbing the PDP ticket without a modicum of sensibilities about our national ethos, Alhaji Atiku is now faced with the karma of his inordinate ambition.
“The PDP has imploded in a battle of attrition, the result of which is predictable. The ongoing fratricidal war where a faction of the party being led by the Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike is engaging Atiku in a fight to finish has undermined any momentum the PDP candidate had hoped to build.
“With further loss of confidence in PDP by its own members who cannot find any redeeming feature in the fast disappearing party, it is crystal clear that Atiku’s latest bid for the Nigeria’s top job has hit the rocks.
“A pillar of Atiku’s campaign is the claim of being a unifier and nationalist. That bogus claim has now been discredited, even within his party as the disaffected members cry for justice and inclusivity.
“Instead of the perennially running and perennially failing candidate to offer them some sop, he has rebuffed them, pleading that he could not grant their request for justice.
“Surely a man who cannot resolve a genuine dispute among his party members, who cannot forge an entente among them, cannot be expected to unify our country.
“Instead of being a unifier, Atiku is now a divider-in-chief”
“The former Vice President created the crisis for himself, by pushing the fallacy that only a northern candidate can win the presidency for his party, despite the open record that southerners, when they network with their northern compatriots can also win the election.
“Former leaders, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo and Dr. Goodluck Jonathan demonstrated this in 1999, 2003 and 2011.
“As a campaign, we can only pity former Vice President Atiku for the self-inflicted injury he invited unto himself. Chinua Achebe, the very accomplished novelist in one of his classics, Arrow of God, wrote that a man who brought ant-infested faggots into the homestead should not grumble when lizards begin to pay him a visit.
“Atiku brought this unto himself and we dare say he can kiss his ill-fated presidential bid goodbye”
BACKGROUND
Atiku Abubakar and his opposition PDP have been in crisis since the multiple events leading to the party`s presidential primaries, which produced him as the party’s presidential candidate.
Atiku`s subsequent choice of the Delta State Governor Ifeanyi Okowa as his running mate, against the popular choice of his party chieftains in the person of the Rivers State governor, Nyesom Wike.
All these put together has further ignited the existing fault lines in the Peoples Democratic Party, especially the scheming of most juicy positions in the party in favour of the north.
Nyesom Wike and some leaders of the party across the country have as a result been calling for the PDP National Chairman Iyorchia Ayu`s resignation and replacement with a southerner.
Rather than hid to this call the PDP presidential candidate, Abubakar Atiku, who emerged in total violation of the zooning arrangement in the party.
The PDP constitution and zooning arrangement should have favoured the emergence of a southern presidential candidate, but was twisted to create room for Atiku, yet he has refused to support the call for a southern National Chairman.
COMMENTARY
Indeed the Atiku’s campaign or lack of campaign is becoming obvious to all of it’s determination to fail. By the end of the February presidential election, the PDP would have lost, not just to the strength of other candidates but to the combined strength of other contenders and the internal contradiction within the party.
Recall that in 2015, when the PDP first lost the presidential election, with then President Goodluck Jonathan, it was more of a loss to forces within the party than any other factor.
Incidentally, Atiku Abubakar was part of that internal contradiction that beleaguered the PDP, even though he had left the PDP for the APC at the latter’s convention in Abuja.
The APC and Bola Ahmed Tinubu came very correct to point out how Atiku violated his party’s convention of rotational presidency. Tinubu is also right on the fallacy that only the North win elections.
However, this is a case of the pot calling the kettle black. Tinubu is guilty of same fallacy he accused Atiku of. This is obvious in his choice of Muslim-Muslim ticket, which his team claims is their only winning formula.
The only difference between the two, is that the APC candidate clothed his own fallacy in a religious garb. The reason he ignored balance of inter faith ticket is the fallacious underpinning that only a Muslim running mate can help his party get the votes in the North.
By that assumption, the APC painted the Northern Muslims in bad light; as a people who can only vote for a Muslim North on the one hand and on the other hand – as a people who have rejected the Southern Muslim, which he is.
Tinubu in that false assertion forgot that Obasanjo a Southern won votes in the North. Tinubu like Atiku both played with national sensibility of power rotation and inter faith ticket respectively.
Again the Tinubu campaign organisation which only last week ran an verbal riot over the NOI/ANAP poll favouring Peter Obi were quick to quote Economic Intelligence Unit, perhaps because this prediction gave them a chance at the polls?
Truly, Nigerians can’t wait for February to make their choice of a new president. However, February maybe a shocker to these parties.
The APC and Bola Ahmed Tinubu boldly and proudly spoke of the programs APC is already implementing, whatever that means.
However, the key programs most Nigerians will remember APC is implementing might just be insecurity and kidnapping, inflation, nepotism, ASUU strike and a threat to proscribe ASUU and other forms of repression.
Could this what the APC presidential candidate was referring to when he claimed that Atiku Abubakar`s campaign document is based on the policies of the Buhari government.?
