The 2023 presidential candidate of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar has dismissed insinuations that he was planning to dump the party for ruling All Progressives Congress, APC. Atiku stated that he will remain in PDP while speaking with women members of the party’s Board of Trustees, BoT, who paid him homage demanding he should help save the party from total collapse.
Atiku, who is championing a coalition movement targeted at unseating the APC-led government in 2027, said the coalition movement was not just a political strategy, but also a necessity to challenge the ruling party and fix the country.
The women, whom were led by the former Minister of Women Affairs and ex-National Women Leader of the party, Hajia Inna Ciroma, that coalition was a workable one that would assure good results.
The former vice president who reiterated his stance in the PDP said, National Party of Nigeria, NPN, the ruling party in the Second Republic had formed an alliance with the Nigeria Peoples Party, NPN, known as NPN-NPP accord, saying when the coalition was achieved, the name of PDP would not be affected.
He told the women about the status of the pan-Nigerian coalition he was building in conjunction with other leaders and stakeholders across political divides and regions.
The Adamawa born politician informed the women that the movement was being powered by Nigerians desirous of reclaiming and rebuilding their country from across the nooks and crannies of Nigeria.
Ciroma said “We, as PDP Board of Trustees, BoT, members, the conscience of the party, decided to take this bold decision to come into the crisis the party is going through.”
According to her “We, as mothers, are worried and disturbed by what the party is going through at the moment. We are disturbed that the party has no leadership and any organisation without leadership cannot stand, we are worried and disturbed. We cannot fold our arms and see things go bad in our great party.
“We decided to visit former Vice President Atiku Abubakar to complain about what we are not happy with, to brainstorm with him on the way forward, on how to save the party from total collapse. We told him there must be leadership and direction in the party. We had very fruitful discussions with the 2023 presidential candidate of the party.
She added that Atiku informed her team that he was not leaving the party despite the movement for the coalition and reiterating the need for the main opposition to be well funded so that the party will be free from manipulation from individuals.
