By Enyichukwu Enemanna
The dream of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar to succeed President Muhammadu Buhari in 2023 may be far from actualization as his former boss, Olusegun Obasanjo has launched an anti-Atiku and PDP campaign in the southern region of the country.
Obasanjo a two-term President of Nigeria under the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is said to be engaging strategic stakeholders to ensure that power returns to the South in 2023.
Recall that amidst intrigues and suspense, Atiku had last Saturday emerged the presidential candidate of the main opposition PDP when he polled 371 votes to defeat Gov. Nyesom Wike of Rivers State who got 237.
Sources privy to information said the former Nigerian leader is unhappy with the emergence of his former Vice as PDP’s standard bearer, arguing that power should return to the South after President Buhari’s eight-year tenure next year.
Though it is not clear what Obasanjo’s grouse against Atiku is, sources said it may not be unconnected to the longstanding disagreement the duo had during their tenure as President and Vice President respectively, which brought Atiku to national limelight.
Following series of interventions and pleas by political and religious leaders, Obasanjo forgave and supported Atiku in the 2019 general elections.
Atiku however lost to the incumbent President Buhari.
But sources said Obasanjo would rather have another person win the PDP presidential ticket instead of the former Vice President, a situation that has fuelled his determination to mobilise southern leaders against Atiku and PDP at the 2023 general elections.
Obasanjo who has remained a loud voice in favour of President of Igbo extraction is said to have detailed former Cross River State Governor, Donald Duke, to start the process of organising strategic leaders against Atiku.
Duke’s assignments according to sources, is to mobilise support across the southern part of the country in favour of Peter Obi, a former Anambra Governor who is the presidential candidate of Labour Party.
Obasanjo had recently 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 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 said Duke is unhappy with the outcome of the presidential primary election which produced Atiku as winner.
His grievances stemmed from the fact that Wike had openly supported Aminu Tambuwal an aspirant and Governor of Sokoto State whose last minute decision gave Atiku an edge over Wike.
Tambuwal had shortly before the commencement of the election at MKO Abiola Stadium in Abuja announced his decision to withdraw from the exercise, urging his supporters to vote for Atiku.
Recall that at the PDP Presidential Primary election in Port Harcourt in 2018, Wike had openly supported Tambuwal against Atiku, among other support he is believed to have given his Sokoto state counterpart.
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 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.
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