A former commissioner for information in Edo State and a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Prince Kassim Afegbua, has asked former vice-president Atiku Abubakar to drop his presidential ambition and support a southern Nigerian candidate in the spirit of fairness, equity and justice.
Afegbua also urged the PDP’s party leadership to zone its 2023 presidential ticket to the south. He said it will assuage the feelings of stakeholders from the southern part of Nigeria.
The PDP chieftain said, the southern geopolitical zones of Nigeria have eminently qualified Nigerians and parade great minds who are competent and ready to take a shot at the number one job.
“Those who are advancing the very nebulous theory of seeing the northern population as a stimulant to win the sympathy of the north against the south are either ignorant of the real demographics or at best, just playing the ostrich. No one in the north should take away what belongs to the south. That will be hurting the consciences and feelings of the average southerner.
“I will therefore implore the new management and members of the National Executive Committee of the PDP as well as the National Working Committee to speak with one voice in ensuring that the south is given what is due to it. Doing that will mean promoting the fundamental principles of democracy of all-inclusiveness and participation,” he said.
On Atiku’s ambition, Afegbua who admitted that he was conscripted into the Technical Committee for Atiku presidency early last year, said after attending three meeting of the group, his spirit and conscience was in permanent conflict with the ethos of justice, fairness and equity which the south deserves.
“For me, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar should quit his quest for presidency and support a southern Nigerian candidate in the spirit of fairness, equity and justice that will assuage the feelings of stakeholders from the southern part of Nigeria.
“It will be against the run of play and natural justice for any aspirant of Northern extraction to show interest in the 2023 presidential election within the Peoples’ Democratic Party threshold,” he said.
He also lampooned Atiku for abandoning the party and relocating to Dubai after the 2019 presidential election, “thus exposing us to the intimidations, harassment and threats posed by the desperate APC’s power oligarchs. It was a case of a General abandoning his troops in the battlefield. Rather than draw strength from his presence, his absence exposed us to all manner of challenges. He was in Dubai and left us to our fate,” he noted.
He said even those who are promoters-in-chief of Alhaji Atiku’s aspiration, knew in their heart of hearts that it is a project that is dead on arrival.
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