April 28, (THEWILL) – Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has charged the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), to give him the right of first refusal for the party’s 2023 presidential ticket.
Atiku made the request on Thursday, in Abuja, during a consultative meeting with the PDP National Working Committee (NWC), led by the national chairman, Dr Iyorchia Ayu, at the national secretariat in Abuja.
While seeking the ticket for the 2023 presidential election, Atiku affirmed that he already has 11 million votes in the kitty and requested the PDP to give him the ticket.
Atiku, who described himself as the best candidate, however, noted that since it is a democracy, all other aspirants should have the right to face the electorate for the ticket.
He admonished the NWC to pave the way for the emergence of the best candidate to lead the party to victory in the 2023 general election.
The former Vice-president said he would work for the devolution of powers to the states and unify the country, if he emerged President in 2023.
He said: “When I declared to run for the President of this country, I said I was going to emphasise on five key issues and these five key issues are germane. I said I was going to make sure that I reunite this country. And that was why I referred to myself as the unifier.
“Secondly, I said I was going to deal decisively with security issues, because there has to be rule of law, there has to be security.
“Before anything else Mr Chairman and members of the National Working Committee, 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 twelve 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 are 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.
“So I’m not going to be that kind of President and you know that Mr Chairman because you and I have worked in the same cabinet.”
Also listing out what he promised to do, Atiku said, “members of the National Working Committee, you also know I promised to deal with the economy. So of course, after you have achieved unity, after you have achieved peace, the next is to deal with the economy.
“And you known Mr chairman and many of your colleagues here on the National Working Committee know that when we came into office in 1999, we virtually met a similar situation like we have today. Nigeria was indebted. We have no foreign reserves, economy was in shambles. Mr Chairman, and very many of you here who are in doubt may know that by the time we left, we left Nigeria in the most healthiest economic position. We have done it before, Mr Chairman, we can do it again.”
Atiku reiterated that he is going to deal with the issue of devolving more powers and resources to the states because “I believe that is the best way to get Nigeria developed to its fullest capacity by giving autonomy and resources to the various components. There are some of us who grew up in the First Republic when we had regions that were virtually in charge of everything in their respective regions, ranging from security to economy to everything, and we saw how we fed and we believe this is the best way to make sure that this country is developed to its fullest potentials.
“And I dare say Mr chairman, I am the best candidate. Under normal circumstances Mr Chairman, this is a guy who has already 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. All What I can urge you 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.”
Taking a swipe at the All Progressives Congress (APC), Atiku said that every Nigerian knows that the APC has failed, “but we should not take Nigerians for granted. We should go all out to let them know APC has failed, It will continue to fail. No matter what gap they have come or they appear to be, they will continue to fail and PDP has not failed on your comparative analysis. If you compare the achievements of PDP and the failure of APC, you know that you have no other choice than PDP.”
Responding, the National Chairman of the party, Senator Iyorcha Ayu, urged the Vice-president to convince the delegates that he is the best for the job.
He said, “I’m saying this to make it clear that those who say oh, because of my personal relationship with you, as chairman, I’ll work for you. Mr Vice President, I will not work for you as an aspirant. I will work for all the 17 aspirants.
“It is left to you to convince the delegates of our party that you are the best. You have to market yourself, you have to work hard. This National Working Committee for now remains an umpire. We are not going to take side with any particular aspirants. But we love you all. I’ve said repeatedly that each one of you given the opportunity will run this country better than what APC has done or will be able to do.
“So in that light, our delegates drawn across the 36 states plus Abuja will ultimately gather hopefully in Abuja and select one of you and the day a candidate emerges, we will all rally around that candidate and make sure we win the presidential election next year.
“If you happen to be the choice of our delegates, all of us sitting here, the National Working Committee, will work very hard to ensure that you win the 2023 elections and when you win, it will not be taken away again as it was done in 2019.”
Explaining how the party picks its candidate, Ayu said, “let me take time to explain to Nigerians that the party has its own internal mechanisms of selecting a candidate whether by consensus, or by election we do it transparently.
“Those who love our party more than us should please tarry a little, they should not select candidates for the Peoples Democratic Party. They don’t have our mandate and we will not concede that mandate to anybody, young or an elder, who chooses by himself to choose candidate for us.
“Our internal processes will go ahead and we are going ahead with it. At the end of the day, we’ll come up with a candidate chosen by the members of the Peoples Democratic Party themselves. It is that candidate that we will present to the rest of Nigeria for the forthcoming elections.”
Ayu, who cautioned the aspirants against attacking one another, said, “I want all 17 of you to continue to canvass for votes across the breadth of this country. I also want to plead with you not to attack one another. You must remain as members of one family, you must continue to hold meetings and visit one another and call one another on the phone.”
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