Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has warned the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, to focus on rebuilding the party rather than jostling for the 2023 presidential ticket now.
Atiku is worried that the PDP has lost focus since 2015 after the party lost power to the All progressive Congress, APC, at the centre saying that the PDP needs a concerted effort to wrest power from the ruling APC in 2023.
“Our preoccupation at this point in the PDP should not focus on elections, but on rebuilding and strengthening our party for the challenges ahead of us,” Atiku declared in a tweet Saturday morning.
The 2019 general election presidential candidate said rather than play politics when campaign season was still at least 30 months away, resources should be channeled towards bolstering the PDP structure, which has weakened consistently since it lost the centre after 16 years in 2015.
Over the past few days, he has faced rumours of taking desperate measures to get the PDP’s presidential ticket again in 2023, when President Buhari would step down after the two terms permitted by the Constitution.
On Friday, media reports quoted Walid Jibrin, chairman of the PDP Board of Trustees, an advisory body of party elders, as alleging threats to his life because he declined to support an automatic ticket for Atiku Abubakar in 2023.
“They said I should say Atiku is the man that I want because I am a leader,” Jibrin said of some unnamed men who allegedly visited him to threaten him on backing Atiku. “They should not also forget that the party has a constitution and guidelines which say there must be primary for whoever wants to contest.”
