The Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister, Nyesom Wike, Senior Special Assistant on Public Communications, Lele Olinka, has blamed former Vice President Atiku Abubakar for the crisis rocking the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
He maintained that Mr. Atiku has always put his personal interests ahead of those of the party and that the PDP leadership has so far been unable to order him to do so.
Naija News reports that Olinka made this suggestion in an interview with Punch on Monday when he was asked about the challenges facing the party and the possibility of the PDP contesting for power in 2027. That’s what it means.
In his response, the Media Aide to the FCT Minister blamed Mr. Atiku for the crisis rocking the PDP. He said the former Vice President had always been leading the rebellion within the PDP and was responsible for the current dire situation of the party, including the famous defeat of former President Goodluck Jonathan in the 2015 elections. .
Olayinka maintained that the crisis rocking the PDP would subside once Atiku steps down from the presidency in 2027.
He charged Mr. Atiku, in view of current events and in the best interests of the PDP, to decline his candidacy for the presidential election and support the person who emerges as the party’s presidential candidate.
According to him, Atiku is not the only person in PDP and everything should not always be about him.
“The problem is what I said earlier: There is a lack of the principle of reward and punishment.What happened to those who were openly anti-party in the past?In 2003, when the PDP did not occupy Lagos, I know what someone did. Imagine PDP winning in Lagos state in 2003. But then PDP. They sabotaged the party’s efforts. The same people who sabotaged the party’s efforts in 2003 formed another political party, the Action Congress. As the incumbent vice president, he ran for president under his party, but nothing was done to him. When he failed in the elections he went to another party and came back to PDP and the party welcomed him and did not sanction him, tell him what he did was wrong, make him apologize and never again. They welcomed him in exchange for making him promise not to do the same. . Nothing of the sort was done against him, so in 2014 the same person led another rebellion. If this man had not led the 2014 insurgency, the PDP would not have become what it is today. Because the then President Goodluck Jonathan did not lose the 2014 election.
“The foundations of what is happening with the PDP began in 2003, followed up in 2007, and culminated in 2014, but there was one person at the helm, and that person still tells us, You keep saying you’re the only one who can fly the party flag.” In 2027, that won’t work. That is the crux of the controversy.
If former Vice President Alhaji Atiku Abubakar comes out now and says, “I will never contest elections again,” this crisis in the PDP will subside because the people are wiser now. In 2019, after picking a ticket and losing, he went to Dubai and stayed for more than two years, leaving the party in the hands of the likes of Wike, Fayose and then-governor Bala Mohammed. They continued to fund the party and support the party. He came back and again, despite all his emotions, chose the ticket for the 2023 election, and that’s how it ended. Such a person now has enough to say, “I’ve worked hard, this party has worked hard for me, let me be like a father now, let me sit down already.” I believe in being honest. I will support whoever becomes the party candidate. “It shouldn’t always be him and he is not the only one in PDP,” Olinka submitted.
