Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar’s assertion about his choice of running partner for the 2023 presidential race has been refuted by a recently leaked document entitled “Report of the Advisory Committee for the Selection of Presidential Running Mate.”CONTINUE FULL READING>>>>>
Lere Olayinka, FCT Minister Nyesom Wike’s Special Assistant on Public Communications and Social Media, posted the paper on social media, refuting Atiku’s assertion that he chose former Delta State Governor Ifeanyi Okowa because he was the committee’s top pick. The assertion was made by Atiku, the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) 2023 presidential nominee, in an interview with Adesuwa Giwa-Osagie on Untold Stories last week. He maintained that party consultation informed his choice and that he had no regrets about passing on Wike.
Atiku clarified in the interview that he had learned from his mistakes and let the party choose his running mate. He recalled how he conferred with former President Olusegun Obasanjo in 2019 to choose a vice presidential candidate after winning the PDP ticket. After winning the ticket in Port Harcourt in 2019, I returned here and immediately traveled to Abeokuta to meet President Obasanjo, my boss, and inform him, “Mr. President, I have the ticket.” “All right, so where is your running mate going to come from?” he asked me. Naturally, it’s either south-east or south-west, I said. “No,” he responded, “leave South-West, as I spent eight years there.” Venture to the southeast. I said, “All right, sir.”
According to Atiku, Obasanjo first proposed Charles Soludo and then Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, who is currently the Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO), but both were rejected because they were not PDP members. In the end, party leaders, including Wike, supported the selection of Peter Obi. After being criticized for not consulting enough people in 2019, Atiku said he gave the PDP permission to form a committee to suggest three candidates for his running mate in 2023. He claimed that Okowa was the committee’s top pick, followed by Wike in second place and former governor of Akwa Ibom State Udom Emmanuel in third.
Atiku implied that Wike was not the committee’s top pick when he said, “So I picked number one.” But the story presented in Olayinka’s stolen document is different. Wike’s name appears first in the document. Atiku came under fire from Olayinka for allegedly misrepresenting the facts, especially during the fasting month of Ramadan. He questioned how a committee could prioritize the candidate with two votes above the one with thirteen. Wike was chosen by the PDP-established committee to be Atiku’s running mate, but for reasons that only he knows, he ultimately chose Okowa, who received just two votes from the committee members. Atiku should not try to taint his decision with lies; that is the truth he should speak and stand by,” he continued.
