2023: Obi In Dilemma Over Atiku’s Presidential Ambition

By Tosin Olatokunbo

Former Governor Peter Obi of Anambra state is in a big dilemma to either face his presidential ambition squarely or run a joint ticket with former Vice President Atiku Abubakar in the 2023 presidential election.

Obi’s campaign posters with Rabiu Kwakawnso, a former governor of Kano state as his running mate, surfaced in some parts of Abuja, two days ago.

This has elicited some reactions from keen political watchers who insist that the former Anambra helmsman must have decided to throw his hat in the ring, by going g solo on the presidential contest without the former vice president.

Obi has denied having anything to do with the poster, describing it as the work of mischief makers who are bent on destroying his political ambition. This, however, has failed to assail the feelings of some Nigerians, that the ex-presidential running may actually be nursing a presidential ambition without Atiku, who also has been touted to be eyeing the race again in 2023.

In a terse statement on his official twitter handle, the former governor dismissed the campaign poster thus “I am not a part of the poster being circulated. – PO.”

The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP under which Atiku and Obi ran the presidential race in 2019 also said it has nothing to do with the campaign posters.

In spite of this, analysts insist that the emerging political situation, particularly, feelings in some part of the country, that a politician from the south east should succeed President Muhammadu Buhari, when his two year terms of four years expires in 2023, must have encouraged the pressure being exerted by some close advisers of the former governor, on him to contest the nation’s highest office.

“What’s happening concerning Obi’s presidential ambition is not strange. As one of the most visible politician of Igbo extraction, it’s natural that his people will be putting pressure on him to take a shot at the country’s top job. But I don’t think the former governor can decide on his own, now that his party, PDP is yet to zone the presidency to any part of the country,” a prominent politician from his state told the magazine on Saturday.

Prominent traditional rulers, politicians, groups, especially Ohanaeze Ndigbo, a social political group from the south east, have insisted that it’s the Igbo’s turn to produce the next president for the country.

Recently too, some politicians from the Northern part of the country, including Audu Ogbeh, a former Minister Minister of Agriculture have thrown their weight behind the Southern Presidency project.

Ogbeh, also a former chairman of the PDP was not however specific where in the South should produce the next president.

Apart from Obi, other Igbo politicians interested in succeeding the incumbent include, former Governors Orji Uzo Kalu, Rochas Okorocha, Governor Dave Umahi of Ebonyi, just to mention a few.

What has remained unclear, meanwhile, is whether the PDP will zone the office to the South East, considering suggestions in some quarters that the party may still be looking towards the North to choose a presidential candidate for the next election.

But a top echelon at the Wadata House, informed the magazine on Sunday that “the PDP is still keeping the matter of 2023 presidential candidate very open to all members of the party. It’s a trump card that the party will not reveal for now,” he said.