As the spokesman for the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Council, Festus Keyamo has said that Atiku Abubakar’s decision to run as a presidential candidate in spite of being declared ineligible by the Peoples Democratic Party was one of the major reasons that the opposition party is in crisis.
The People’s Democratic Party has been plagued by internal crisis for months, with a camp loyal to Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike demanding that the National Chairman Iyorchia Ayu step down so that another member from the south of Nigeria can be appointed to replace him.
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Keyamo explained while speaking on a Twitter Space Programme organised recently by the ABAT (Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu) media team disclosed that Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, the presidential candidate of the APC, in 2007 gave Atiku ‘a soft landing’ by handing the presidential ticket of the then Action Congress (AC) to him to contest the 2007 election.
The Minister of State for Labour noted;
In 2007, Asiwaju decided to call on Atiku who had been thrown out of the PDP at that time because Olusegun Obasanjo ordered a re-registration of all PDP members because he wanted to wield out people like Atiku.
And so when Atiku went back to his Jada ward, even as Vice-President, they refused to give him a membership card. That was how they threw Atiku out of the PDP. What happened? Asiwaju had already oiled the political machine called the AC at that time. He invited Atiku and gave him the ticket on a platter of gold.
Asiwaju could have gone for President but he saw the mood of the nation because Obasanjo was just finishing his Presidency. So he knew that the presidency could not remain in the South. That’s a kind of nationalist, patriotic person that Asiwaju is.
He decided to give Atiku the ticket, Atiku failed in 2007.
