Senate President Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki is not in a good position to become Director-General of the Atiku Presidential Campaign, sources familiar with the development told SIGNAL on Friday.
There have been speculations in certain quarters that Saraki had been considered for the role by Atiku Abubakar, presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). But a member of the PDP NEC who did not want to be named, dismissed the likelihood, stating that Saraki as Senate President, Nigeria’s number three citizen and National Leader of the PDP could not serve in that capacity.
“It is not possible. First of all, Atiku is from the North and his campaign DG cannot be from the North. That would be problematic. Again, Saraki is the National Leader of our party and number three citizen of Nigeria. So he will be speaking as Atiku’s Campaign DG, Senate President and National Leader of PDP at the same time? The PDP is big enough and we have a lot of excellent and eminently qualified people to man that role. Where do you want to put Otunba Gbenga Daniel who has done a yeoman’s job in ensuring Atiku clinched the ticket?”, the source said.
Reacting to a list of purported members of the Atiku Presidential Campaign Organisation that has been circulating in the new media space, the PDP NEC member questioned the credibility and authenticity of the list. According to him, “Does it even make sense? The position of the Youth Mobilisation is being given to a complete outsider. What will then happen to the office of the National Youth Leader of the PDP, Hon. Ude Okoye? When we have young people like Ndi Kato? Sola Kuti, Usman Okai, Demola Olarewaju, Jude Imagwe? Are they going to be sidelined? So young people who are known to have a record of attacking PDP leaders will now smuggle themselves back into the PDP presidential campaign to torpedo what has taken a lot of hard work to build? That’s not going to happen”, the source added.
Meanwhile, informed sources within the top PDP echelon and the Atiku presidential campaign told SIGNAL some names are being considered for the composition of the Atiku Presidential Campaign Organisation. For the job of spokesperson, Atiku is said to be seriously concerned about running an issue-based campaign, hence current campaign spokesman Segun Sowunmi is being considered to retain his position as he is perceived to have done creditably well, while other likely nominees for position of campaign spokesperson include, Femi Fani-Kayode, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi and Engr. Emmanuel Agbo.
However, nothing is cast in stone as Atiku is still widely consulting even on his choice of a running mate. Political analysts are currently sharply divided on which of the South-West or South-East geo-political zones would best boost Atiku’s chances in the 2019 presidential election.
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