The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), former vice president Atiku Abubakar again received another endorsement after the Red Card Movement (RCM) adopted him as its choice for next week election.
RCM co-Chairman, Dr Tony Akabuno, who made this known in a press briefing in Abuja Thursday said former Minister of Education, Oby Ezekwesili, had resigned from the group before she declared to run for the presidency under the Action Congress Party of Nigeria (ACPN).
He said: “After several failed attempts by RCM, at midwifing a coalition of the alternatives, our members that are on the ground (State champions) at a meeting with co-conveners, last week, resolved that the primary focus should be how to ensure that the present Buhari-led regime was voted out of power.
“The state champions confirmed that the reality of what is on the field(feedback from our structures and members in the States, LGA, Wards and polling units) is that only the opposition party (PDP) has the capacity to dislodge Buhari.
“The state champions were basically saying that our red card should be to Buhari and the current president and to APC as the ruling party. As the co-chair of RCM, I decided to align with our foot soldiers. Some co-conveners also supported this position of focusing on reviewing the performance of the leadership in power, and not be distracted with historical performance of past regimes.
He revealed: “Some co-conveners were of the opinion that we should not get into any arrangement with PDP. These ones suggested a ‘Siddon look approach’. They appealed to me, as one that is very close to the state champions, to persuade our leaders across the federation to desist from supporting the Atiku/Obi ticket.
“But as a pragmatic political strategist and the peoples’ general, I had no choice than to reject the inferior argument of some co-coveners and strongly aligned with our state champions, who are in sync with the grassroots. We believe that it is myopic and grandiose delusion for anyone to think that any other political party can dislodge this failed APC, apart from PDP.
“Atiku is a successful businessman that understands governance because he learnt a lot from one of our great presidents, Obasanjo. And he has a running mate in the person of Peter Obi, that has practicalized Character, Competence & Capacity. We are convinced that Atiku led regime will assemble a good management team and ultimately restructure Nigeria.
He said: “Alhaji Abubakar Atiku is a pan Nigerian. He understands the peculiarities of each region and the tribes therein. Atiku will not run an administration for a few. Alhaji Atiku is also not a religious bigot.
“Atiku’s policies will take Nigeria out of the woods and put the country back on track. Atiku’s promise of restructuring the nation and provision of jobs for the unemployed are key to a nation’s development and the Red Card Movement is ready to lend our weight behind the PDP candidate in order not to have a repeat of the 2015 scenario. We are on the same page with Atiku and whatever we do, we do it well.
“The coming election will be a defining moment in the political history of our country. Buhari has failed in all his cardinal programmes of improving the economy, provision of adequate security and fighting corruption. He has instead been playing politics with corruption. We cannot perform experiment with the presidency. This is not about Buhari but about the future of the country. The question is if we want the status quo to remain or if we want a change.”
