Ahead of the 2023 general elections, former President Olusegun Obasanjo has started mobilising strategic stakeholders in the southern part of the country against the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, Leadership Newspaper reports.
Political sources, who confirmed the move, said the former president, who expressed unhappiness at the emergence of Atiku as the opposition party flag bearer ahead of his southern counterparts, argued that power should return to the South after President Muhammadu Buhari’s eight years as president.
Atiku emerged PDP candidate for a second time in four years at the MKO National Stadium in Abuja last Saturday, scoring a total of 371 Votes to defeat his closest rival, Nyesom Wike, who scored 237 votes.
The sources said Obasanjo’s grievances with Atiku may not be unconnected to the longstanding differences since they both acted as president and vice president of the country, when Atiku rose to fame.
However, Obasanjo forgave and supported Atiku in the last general elections which the latter lost to incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari.
But sources said Obasanjo would rather have another person win the PDP presidential ticket instead of the former vice president and that is why he is determined to mobilise Southern leaders against Atiku at the 2023 general elections.
Top sources, who spoke to Leadership Newspaper exclusively on the current plan, said the former president had already detailed former Cross River State governor, Donald Duke, to start the process of organising strategic leaders against Atiku.
The sources said part of Duke’s assignments is to mobilise support across the southern part of the country in favour of Peter Obi, who is the presidential candidate for the Labour Party.
Obasanjo also held meetings with Obi and Duke and urged them to lobby River State governor, Nyesom Wike, who is obviously angry at the outcome of the primary of the PDP, where he lost to Ati ku Abubakar.
The sources also said Obasanjo had concluded plans to personally meet with Wike and all the top stakeholders from the southern part of the country to ensure that power returns to the south at the 2023 general election.
Other sources also noted that Duke’s grievances are with the alleged betrayal of Wike by the Sokoto State governor, Aminu Tambuwal, who openly stepped down at the 11th hour of the PDP primary election and told his delegates to vote for Atiku, despite the fact that Wike has always supported Tambuwal both politically, financially and otherwise, especially during the 2019 PDP presidential primary elections.
Duke is also said to be aggrieved over the money spent on Tambuwal and his ambition by Wike, who naturally should get his support at the primaries but lost it due to northern collaboration before the primaries.
Duke, while lamenting the betrayal to Obasanjo, also confirmed the betrayal of some southern governors who wanted their delegates to vote for Atiku, noting that it was only delegates from Akwa Ibom and Edo that defied their governors’ order to vote for Wike.
After the primary, Wike had declared that some PDP governors ganged up with some vested interest groups to derail the quest for Southern Nigeria to produce the next president.
He said it was the agreement of the Southern governors that the presidency should come to the South, which he stood by going into the contest.
Meanwhile, Duke is also said to have already started working towards mobilisation for this task, as he has already contacted a respected priest from Cross River State, pointing out the implications of power remaining in the north and the neglect of the South East and the South South, which were already allegedly schemed out in the PDP power equation.
(Adapted from a report by Leadership)
