The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is living no stone unturned as its presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, Senate President Bukola Saraki, National Chairman, Uche Secondus, and other party big wigs continued their strategic meetings in Dubai ahead of 2019 elections on Saturday.
Apparently determined to defeat President Muhammadu Buhari in the 2019 presidential election, stalwarts of the opposition party are reportedly leading a host of other chieftains in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, to fine-tune their campaign strategy ahead of the November 18 commencement date.
The special strategy session, according to reports, started on Thursday, October 25, in the Middle East city, and it is meant to put finishing touches to the PDP’s plans for victory at next year’s poll.
It was learnt that the PDP presidential candidate’s roadmap for Nigeria’s development would be unveiled to Nigerians in the next few weeks.
According to Punch newspaper, Atiku, who had been in Dubai earlier, was joined by Saraki, Secondus and a host of other PDP chieftains on Wednesday, October 24.
The Director General of the Atiku Campaign Organisation, Gbenga Daniel, also a former governor of Ogun State, is also attending the meeting.
The newspaper quoted a top source in PDP as having said that the meeting was important for the party to fine-tune its strategy ahead of the electioneering campaign.
“All of them, including Atiku, Saraki, Obi and Daniel are meeting in Dubai now; the essence is to strategise ahead of the campaign,” said the source.
However, it was not clear how long, in terms of the number of days, the strategy session would last but it was learnt that Saraki, Atiku, Secondus and other leaders in the meeting were determined to perfect most of their plans ahead of the presidential campaign scheduled to begin on November 18.
According to INEC’s timetable and schedule of activities issued by the commission, campaigns for presidential and National Assembly elections will commence on November 18, while campaigns for governorship and state assembly elections will start on December 1.
Confirming the meeting in Dubai, the spokesperson for the Atiku campaign organisation, Segun Sowunmi, said there was a need for Atiku to meet with critical stakeholders ahead of the presidential, governorship and other campaigns scheduled to begin soon.
He said, “The appropriate response is that the former vice president, who is now the presidential candidate of the PDP, after a very grueling and rigorous campaign during the primaries, has taken a couple of days for a deserved rest.
“As a matter of fact, the quantum of work needed to be done in Nigeria is such that the rest is almost turning out to be a working rest.
“We will ask them to look at the growing economy we handed over to the APC in 2015 and what we have now in the country.
“They will have to choose between hunger and satisfaction, non-payment of salaries now and regular payment they had experienced then and so forth. It will be an opportunity for Nigerians to remember the period of peace they enjoyed then and what they have now. Definitely, the difference is clear.”
