Former vice president Atiku Abubakar has addressed his decision not to choose the current Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, as his running mate in the 2023 election.
Many observers believe this decision played a role in the leadership crisis that has rocked the PDP since then.
There were speculations that the decision not to pick Wike contributed to Atiku’s loss at the poll, as the former Rivers State governor led five other PDP governors to rebel against the party’s choice. Wike later boasted about working against Atiku and delivering Rivers State for President Tinubu.
However, Atiku said he had no regrets about not picking Wike.
“No, not at all,” he said.
Explaining his decision, Atiku recalled that he was accused of failing to consult widely when he picked Peter Obi as his running mate in 2019.
“In 2019, when I won the ticket in Port Harcourt, I came back here and then went straight to Abeokuta to meet my boss, President Obasanjo, and told him, ‘Mr. President, I have got the ticket.’ So he asked me, he said, ‘Okay, from where is your running mate going to come from?’ I said, of course, it’s either South-east or South-west. He said, ‘No, leave South-west because I was there for eight years. Go to the South-east.’ I said, ‘Okay, sir.’
Atiku said when he asked Obasanjo for a nomination, the former president suggested Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the current Director General of the World Trade Organization (WTO), who had previously served as Nigeria’s Minister of Finance.
“So I told him Ngozi was not a member of our party. I believe if I forward the name to the party, they will reject it. He said, ‘Okay. What about Soludo?’ I said Soludo too was not a member of our party, so they will not accept.
“And he said, ‘What about Peter Obi?’ I said Peter Obi is a member of the party. So that was it. So I came back here in this very same building, very same room, and it was a morning meeting of the party leaders—Uche Secondus and others, including Wike himself and Tambuwal. I remember there were about seven of them. I said, ‘Look, I have been to my boss, and this is what he said. Do you have any objection? You are leaders of the party and also leaders of the governors’ forum.’”
Atiku said after they assured him that they had no objection, he asked them to announce Obi as his running mate. However, he later came under criticism for supposedly failing to consult widely.
“They said I did not consult with the party enough. So in 2023, I threw the whole thing to the party. I said, ‘Okay, set up a committee and recommend three people for me to pick as running mate.’”
According to Atiku, the committee submitted three names: then-Delta State Governor Ifeanyi Okowa as the first choice, Wike as the second, and then-Akwa Ibom State Governor Udom Emmanuel as the third.
“So I picked number one,” he said, adding that his decision not to pick Wike was simply because he was the second choice on the list.(Daily trust)
