As the 2023 general elections draw closer a coalition of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar support groups has denounced the former vice president and his presidential ambition, even as they insisted it was time for the whole country to align and allow the South to have the opportunity to produce a president.
The coalition consists of: Middle Belt Network for Atiku represented by Luka Pam, National President and Madaki Yakubu, Secretary General; North 4 North Support Group for Atiku, represented by Mohammed Garba, National Coordinator and Abubakar Sanni, National Secretary; Turaki Arewa Vanguard for Atiku, represented by Musa Abdullahi, National Coordinator, and Rabiu Ibrahim, Deputy Coordinator; and the South-west Development Frontiers, represented by Femi Osabi and Olufemi Lawson, Co- Convener.
Leader of the Coalition, Femi Osabinu, declared their stand while addressing a press conference, Thursday in Abuja, with the theme: Coalition of Concerned Groups on Power Shift to the South and the Need for Younger Candidates to Emerge Come 2023: A National and Patriotic Call,
Osabinu, who read the text signed by representatives of the groups said the coalition had diligently reviewed the contemporary and evolving issues plaguing Nigeria.
The coalition leader stated that, “Nigeria, unlike any other country in Africa that went through colonialism, through a coming together of interests coalesced under the banner of the amalgamation of the northern and southern protectorates to form the current entity.
“Today, more than at any other time in her history, the country’s unity is under threat by collection of centripetal forces, a situation which can only be addressed by equitable opportunity at aspiring for the leadership of Nigeria, to give these two regional blocs a sense of belonging to what is today known as the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“Today, in the face of ongoing insurgencies and separatist movements feeding various sentiments that have left the average Nigerian with low morale and uncertainty over the future of the country, it is only fair that there is a power shift to the southern region.
“There have been several calls to that effect, and we hereby wish to lend our voice to those calls, with It is our considered opinion, with Nigeria’s continued corporate existence as a united country under threat, that it is only fair in the interest of fairness and equity rather than majority rule, for power to return to the southern part of Nigeria.”
Speaking further he said, “We are, by this media briefing, calling on any political party interested in national unity come 2023 to do the needful on this fundamental patriotic call.
“… We make a clear and undiluted call on former vice president Atiku Abubakar to give second thoughts to his desire to contest for the office of president in the elections again in 2023.
“While Alhaji Atiku Abubakar has served the nation with distinction, as evidenced in the fact that we have been his supporters for years, it is also undeniable that at 77 years of age going into this race, it will be a mismatch of national priorities to support his quest, taking into consideration the unique interplay of circumstances currently confronting our country.”
According to him, “We are also not unmindful of the fact that Alhaji Atiku Abubakar abandoned the party structure of the PDP and his support groups post 2019 elections; a clear betrayal of the trust reposed in him as an encapsulation of the sum of their legitimate aspirations and hopes for Nigeria.
“We are equally not blind to the optics of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar’s preferred public association with members of the topmost echelons of the Nigerian elite, showing he has lost touch with the reality of the suffering masses of Nigeria, who are bitten by the current bugs of the economy and the potential drifting of the political ship of state.
“As a professed lover of the east of Nigeria, having even gone as far as taking a wife from that region, we urge Alhaji Atiku to substitute his personal ambition with overt support for a candidate of eastern extraction.”
