The refusal of former Vice-president, Atiku Abubakar to bottle up his 2027 presidential ambition would eventually leave the opposition tattered and in disarray, a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress(APC), Mr. Osita Okechukwu has said.
He made the disconcerting prediction in a statement he issued in Enugu, made available to the media, saying that Atiku’s political ambition has once again become a stumbling block for opposition consensus.
Okechukwu expressed his desire for a thriving multi-party democracy, saying that “as an octogenarian and elder statesman, Atiku “should help build the consensus of Peter Obi and Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso presidential ticket to make 2027 presidential election robust, credible, challenging”.
He said that if such a democratic culture could be cultivated Nigeria would become “a shining example to the global community, instead of placing our democracy in unnecessery north-south debacle”.
However, the former Voice of Nigeria (VON) Director General regretted that a glaring crack has already surfaced in the opposition coalition, the African Democratic Congress(ADC) because of Atiku’s bid to emerge the party’s presidential flag bearer come 2027.
According to him, the “embarrassing absence” of Atiku when other ADC leaders gathered in Kano recently to receive Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso into the party was a bad omen for opposition unity and a strong indication that Atiku was not ready to yield ground.
Okechukwu, who is a founding member of APC also latched on Atiku’s latest statement that ‘Am not stepping aside’, saying that he has “conclusively vindicated some of us that he is one of the anti-democrats fueling one party state”.
He said that it was painful that instead of joining other opposition leaders to welcome Kwankwaso, Atiku “issued the sinister statement that he is not stepping aside, when nobody asked him” thereby exposing his vaulting ambition.
The APC chieftain said that Atiku’s statement that he won’t step aside was coming “at a time when Nigerians expect a credible and united opposition, where ADC’s key opposition figures are not locked in a battle of egos, thereby making meaningful coalition impossible”.
“Atiku’s declaration has laid bare the real problem of a foremost opposition held hostage by personal ambition, where no one is willing to neither yield ground for the collective good nor obey the zoning convention,” Okechukwu stated.
The former VON DG described zoning convention as “a unity ornament which guarantees that presidential power rotates from north to south and vice versa, hence inclusion, equity and fairness”.
He faulted the opposition claim the President Bola Tinubu and the ruling APC were driving Nigeria to one party system, arguing that opposition leaders were the ones constructing the road to one party state by failing to get their acts together.
Okechukwu asked, rhetorically: “Is there any better way to fuel one party state than His Excellency Atiku Abubakar’s embarrassing absence from the Kano grand ceremony by ADC’s leadership, who welcomed Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso and by extension the Kwankwasiyya movement into their fold”.
He querried the rationale for Atiku to “bandy the serial propaganda statement that President Tinubu is fueling one party state” when the former Vice-president was working against strong opposition having “covertly opposed the defection of a big fish like Kwankwaso to ADC”.
Okechukwu recalled that Atiku “displayed the same anti-democratic tendenciy during the PDP’s presidential primary election in 2023, which inadvertently destablised the Peoples Democratic Party irretrievably”.
He argued that “Nigerians can now clearly agree with us that the loud, repeated allegations of APC constructing so-called one ‘one-party state’ are nothing but a smokescreen to cover the opposition’s deep-seated anti-democratic tendency, disunity, and lack of strategic direction.
“Let it be stated without ambiguity: we are vindicated,” Okechukwu asserted“.
He pointed out that “the strength of the APC lies not merely in incumbency, but in the inability of opposition parties to put their acts together and prioritize national interest over individual ambition”.
“The real danger to Nigeria’s democracy is not dominance by one party, but the reckless dysfunction of those who should provide balance,” he stated.
