By James Orji
Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has mapped out his strategy to defeat the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC in next year’s presidential election if given the ticket by the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.
The presidential race is gradually reaching a boiling point as many presidential hopefuls in the PDP have now thrown their hats in the ring. But for Atiku, he has already devised a plan to defeat the APC with 11 million votes.
The former Nigerian number two secured more than 11 million votes in the 2019 presidential election, which fell short of defeating the incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari.
But speaking to the PDP National Working Committee in Abuja on Thursday, Atiku who is contesting the presidency for the fourth time said he’s the best among the aspirants to lead the party to victory in 2023.
Apart from him other presidential hopefuls are; Governors Nyesom Wike of Rivers, Bala Muhammed of Bauchi, Udom Emmanuel of Akwa Ibom, former Senate President Bukola Saraki, Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto state.
Others are Anyim Pius Anyim, a former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, SGF amongst, Peter Obi, a former governor of Anambra state, amongst others.
Atiku however promised to snatch victory from the ruling party, adding that he deserved to be granted the right of first refusal for the 2023 ticket.
He urged the PDP leadership to allow a level playing field for all aspirants to test their popularity among Nigerians, a veiled response to a recently botched arrangement by some Northern leaders who said they have picked Saraki and Mohammed as the region’s consensus Candidates.
“….I dare say Mr. Chairman, I am the best candidate. Under normal circumstances Mr. Chairman, this is a guy who already has 11 million votes in his kitty. And I think, as a party, you should give me the right of first refusal but we are in a democracy,” Atiku said.
“All that I can urge you to do is to make sure that the way you have started, you also conclude the way you have started by being very fair, very credible, giving every contestant the opportunity to face the electorate.”
He said the country required a Commander-in-Chief who can secure the country from terrorists and other criminals, noting that President Buhari has failed in that direction. He added that Buhari’s ministers and aides no longer carry out orders from him.
According to him, “About two months ago, I was on a visit to Niger State and I decided to pay a courtesy call to the governor.
“The governor told me, Sir, we have about 12 local governments, which are under the control of bandits. We don’t know how to conduct elections in those local governments. And I went to the President, I said, Mr. President, we need more policemen and the President said how can I give you more policemen when the inspector general of police and the police service commission is in court on who will recruit policemen?’
“I cannot be that kind of President. And that is where we are today. We cannot recruit policemen because the two agencies are in court and we have a president who cannot bring under control his own heads of departments, not even ministers?”
