- Says Ex-VP Can Pursue Ambition On Another Platform
By Kolawole Ojebisi
A chieftain of Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP) and member of the party’s Board of Trustees, Bode George, has stated why Atiku Abubakar, Nigeria’s former Vice President, cannot be the opposition party’s presidential candidate in 2027.
George disclosed this in an interview on Politics Today, a programme on Channels Television, on Monday.
According to him, it is against the PDP’s internal zoning policy for a northern candidate to emerge from the party in 2027.
“Atiku can’t be the PDP presidential candidate in 2027. Our internal zoning policy makes it compulsory to be eight years for the South and North. If Atiku emerges as the PDP candidate in 2027 by any means, the party will collapse,” George stated.
He continued, “What happened the last time (2023 presidential election) was self-infliction. We shot ourselves in the head by deviating from the doctrine established by the founding fathers. Some of us warned that they were not crazy when they established this doctrine or process.
“We have realised we committed a very stupid mistake in the last election. Those who want to go to other parties and pick a presidential ticket can go. We have learned a lesson.
“We had, and I am repeating, eight years of zoning presidential candidate in the north by Section 7 Subsection 3C of our party. Once the North has held the position for eight years, it should have come down to the South.
“Who was the last president for eight years? It was my Oga, General Buhari. So how would another person, Atiku, who is also a northerner, take over the presidential ticket? We messed up. They were completely mesmerised by the procedure, and we told them that it would land in the bush.”
George claimed it was a decision they regretted and would work against recurring in the future.
When quizzed if Atiku still stands the chance of emerging as the PDP presidential candidate in 2027, George said, “He cannot be. This is what I am saying. They have spent eight years in the north. It should be the turn of a southern candidate. That is the doctrine of the founding fathers of the PDP.
“I am not saying he can’t contest. He can go to any party and pick a ticket. If he becomes the PDP candidate again in 2027, that will be the end of this party. We will not accept it.”
His remarks come hours after PDP Governors’ Forum on Monday rejected the Atiku-led opposition coalition ahead of the 2027 election.
In the past few weeks, Atiku, Peter Obi, and the former governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai, unveiled a coalition aimed at unseating Tinubu in 2027.
Recall that former presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party, Adewale Adebayo, had said Atiku and Obi were in talks to join the SDP.
He said if Atiku, Obi and other prominent politicians willing to join SDP can stick to the party’s culture, they would defeat and retire Tinubu and the APC.
Meanwhile, a chieftain of the New Nigeria Peoples Party, NNPP, Buba Galadima said El-Rufai was Atiku’s placeholder in the SDP should the PDP deny him its presidential ticket
Atiku has been in the presidential race for long. He contested the highest political office and failed in 2007, 2011, 2019. That’s without including his efforts at party’s primary level where he stepped down in 1993 on the platform of the Social Democratic Party ( SDP) for the late Moshood Kashimawo Olawale (M.K.O) Abiola and in 2015 when he ran against Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and lost.
His latest attempt was in the 2023 election as PDP’s presidential candidate which was won by the incumbent president, Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
