A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Osita Okechukwu, has urged former Vice President Atiku Abubakar to withdraw from the 2027 presidential race and instead embrace the role of a statesman in the interest of Nigeria’s democracy.
Speaking on Arise Television’s Prime Time on Monday, Okechukwu argued that Atiku’s decision to contest the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential ticket in 2022, despite calls for the party to respect its zoning arrangement by ceding the ticket to the South, triggered a crisis that continues to weaken the opposition.
According to him, Atiku’s emergence as the PDP’s presidential candidate ahead of the 2023 general election destabilised the party and had far-reaching consequences for Nigeria’s democratic landscape.
“I am speaking in the interest of our country. I have great respect for His Excellency Atiku Abubakar, but I appeal to him to consider the interest of the Nigerian state and our fledgling democracy,” Okechukwu said.
He maintained that Atiku’s decision to contest the PDP ticket in 2022 amounted to a breach of the party’s informal power rotation principle, describing the fallout as severe.
“The collateral damage has been enormous. Fortunately, democracy survived and the country remained stable, but the destabilisation of the PDP has had consequences that cannot be quantified,” he stated.
Okechukwu recalled that Atiku left the PDP for the APC in 2014, insisting it was the North’s turn to produce the president, before returning to the PDP and contesting its presidential primaries in 2018.
He argued that had Atiku allowed a southern aspirant to emerge as the PDP candidate in 2022, the party would have remained a stronger opposition force, even if it still lost the election to President Bola Tinubu.
The APC stalwart also dismissed Atiku’s criticism of the Tinubu administration over alleged attempts to create a one-party state, insisting that the PDP’s internal decisions were largely responsible for its current predicament.
“Most times, I hear him accusing President Tinubu of creating a one-party state, but he overlooks the fact that if he had allowed a southerner to contest against Tinubu in 2023, the PDP could have remained a formidable opposition party, even in defeat,” Okechukwu said.
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