Ahead of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) National Convention slated for 28 and 29 May, 2022, a former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar said he deserved the right of first refusal to the party’s ticket.
Atiku, who stated this during his visit to the party’s National Working Committee (NWC), on Thursday, in Abuja said he had 11 million votes in his kitty to help the party return to power in 2023.
The party’s presidential candidate, in the 2019 presidential poll, commended the party leadership for allowing others to contest.
Atiku promised that if elected, he would reunite the country, deal decisively with security issues and revamp the economy.
He continued: “Mr Chairman and members of the National Working Committee, I’m really not here to lecture you, I’m just really here to inform you of my decision, to run again, and also to urge you to provide the right kind of leadership so that the best candidate can emerge.”
He urged the party to be very fair, and credible and ensure that all contestants were allowed to face the electorate.
On the performance of the incumbent administration of the All Progressives Congress (APC) led by President Muhammadu Buhari, Atiku said the party had failed in all aspects.
He charged the party leadership to go all out to let Nigerians know that the APC had failed, adding that “If you compare the achievements of PDP and the failure of APC, you know that you have no other choice than PDP.”
In his remarks, the PDP National Chairman, Senator Iyorchia Ayu said he would not only work for Atiku, but also for all the 17 other aspirants.
The former President of the Senate said: “Mr Vice President, I will not work for you as an aspirant. I will work for all the 17 aspirants. It is left to you to convince the delegates of our party that you are the best. You have to market yourself, you have to work hard.”
He assured him that the NWC would be neutral and remain so before and during the National Convention.
On the controversy surrounding the North’s consensus candidate for the PDP, Ayu explained that the PDP had its internal mechanisms for selecting a candidate, saying “whether by consensus or by-election we will do it transparently.”
He said: “Those who love our party more than us should please tarry a little, they should not select candidates for the Peoples Democratic Party.
“They don’t have our mandate and we will not concede that mandate to anybody, Young or an elder who chooses by himself to choose a candidate for us.
“Our internal processes will go ahead and we are going ahead with it. At the end of the day, we’ll come up with a candidate chosen by the members of the People’s Democratic Party themselves.
“It is that candidate that will present to the rest of Nigeria for the forthcoming elections.”
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