By Gideon Njoku
A former Presidential Campaign Spokesman in 2019 for then Candidate Atiku Abubakar, Kassim Afegbua, has accused the former Vice President of lying.
Afegbua, a former Commissioner for Information in Edo State, under the Adams Oshiomhole Government, was reacting to a statement credited to Atiku when he visited former President Olusegun Obasanjo on Saturday in Abeokuta.
He had gone to seek the support and blessing of the former President for his Presidential aspiration in 2023.
Atiku who spoke to Reporters after his meeting with Obasanjo was positive he would clinch the Presidential ticket of his Party, the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, for the 2023 Presidential election. For emphasis he asked them if he had ever failed to clinch a nomination ticket before.
Stung by Atiku’s claim, Afegbua in a statement he personally signed, put a lie to it. He said Atiku was only able to inch the PDP ticket in 2019, and had never done that before. Afegbua proceeded to say more.
He revealed that Atiku, given his age, ought to know that no former Nigerian President or Head of State would support his Presidential aspiration. The former Leaders, Kassim said, are desirous of having a younger Nigerian as the President in 2023. Meaning that his visits to them, and any assurances he thinks he received from them, are hogwash.
More important, however, Afegbua warned the PDP not to trust Atiku with its ticket. Referring to what happened in 2019, Afegbua said Atiku abandoned the Party and all his foot soldiers, and went to Dubai to stay while his foot soldiers were being hounded by the All Progressives Congress, APC, Government.
Part of Afegbua’s statement reads: “I read with dismay, the statement credited to former Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, where he boasted that he would always get the Presidential ticket of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP. At a time when the former Vice President should be working towards strengthening the structures of the party for more electoral victories, the only thing that bothers him is all about his selfish aspiration.
“It was only in 2019 that Alhaji Atiku Abubakar emerged the candidate of the PDP at the Porthacourt convention when it was decided by the Southern aspirants to allow an all-Northern aspirants to contest the Primary election. So, the claim that ‘I will always get the ticket of the PDP’ flies in the face of logic, fact and reality.
“Atiku should be thinking of how to support the younger generation from the South of the country to pursue the Presidential aspiration of the opposition Party.
“We cannot afford the mistake of 2019 when Alhaji Atiku abandoned all his foot soldiers and sought refuge in faraway Dubai. A true political General ought to secure his troops and return them to the barracks after the war to carry out critical assessment before knowing the next step.
“Rather than borrow a leaf from the Ukrainian President, Zelensky, who has been standing by his Ukrainian nationals, to the extent of carrying AK-47 to the battle field to secure his country from Russian invasion, Alhaji Abubakar ran away to Dubai and exposed all of us to the threats and intimidation of the monstrous APC in 2019.
“Such a leader cannot be trusted with the responsibility of representing our aggregate interest in the struggle for 2023. No amount of closed-door meetings with former leaders can change the oscillation of the political pendulum in 2023.
“Except he is being deceived, no former President would support an Atiku Presidency at a time they all have spoken loudly about fielding younger President in 2023.”
For the records, for almost two years, Afegbua has not been on the same page with the PDP. They fell out over the fielding of Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki, and his Deputy, as PDP candidates as soon as they defected from the APC to the PDP. He felt Obaseki secured the ticket very cheaply. Afegbua worked against the PDP at the election.The party has since placed Afegbua on indefinite suspension.
