Former Vice President of Nigeria, Atiku Abubakar, Thursday, weighed on the crisis tearing the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, apart, and urged the leaders to unite in the best interest of the party and for the sake of Nigeria.
A press statement by Paul Ibe, Media Adviser to thee former Vice President, said his principal made the statement after critically appraising the roiling war within the party which experts fear may lead to a devastating implosion if not promptly arrested.
Atiku, according to thee release, said the party cannot afford to be divided at this critical point in time when Nigerians are desperately yearning for change in the face of their miserable living conditions.
According to Atiku, an opposition that is looked up to as an alternative cannot afford to be fighting itself and lend its hands to the ruling party for its own destruction.
The former Vice President dismissed insinuations that he was fueling the crisis in the party.
He urged the party’s faithful to understand that the price of having a fragmented PDP is too high to pay, but above all, a betrayal to the memories of the founding fathers of the party.
He explained that he was lately involved in reconciliation efforts within the party across the country and has backed reconciliation processes aimed at defusing tension in the party. He called for calm and asked the combatants to sheath their swords and give the reconciliation mechanisms of the party a chance.
He noted that the interest of the PDP far supercedes that of any individual, insisting that the party will overcome its current travails for as long as all hands are on deck. “The PDP is greater than our individual ambitions. We have to consolidate the party first before we talk about our ambitions. We have to be careful not to play into the hands of the ruling party. We can’t afford a one-party system in Nigeria that denies our people a viable alternative for true change in 2023”, the former Vice President said.
The former PDP presidential candidate warned that lack of unity and internal cohesion could help the ruling party more than the PDP, and that “those who want Nigerians to continue with the current hardship in the land will be eager to fuel the crisis in the PDP for their political advantage.”
He added that PDP leaders should put personal differences aside and work for the good of the party, adding that “divided soldiers cannot fight a war and win.”
To ensure that the PDP does not repeat the mistakes of the past, Atiku Abubakar said that all contending issues in the party must be resolved through constitutional means.
