Amalgamated Atiku Support Group (AASG) has said that former Vice President to former President Olusegun Obasanjo, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar remains the most adequately prepared and experienced politician in Nigeria to confront and rescue power from the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2023.
Mr. Oladimeji Fabiyi, the National Coordinator of the group in a statement at the weekend however, condemned a recent statement credited to a group that suggested that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) should not field Atiku as a presidential candidate in 2023. He said the anonymous group had launched a sustained media campaign against Atiku, but stressed that no group should have the right to tell the PDP who to select as its presidential candidate.
The group stated: “This anti-Atiku group is ignorant of the dynamics of our politics and recent election trends. Atiku is the most adequately prepared and experienced political candidate in Nigeria to confront the APC.”
Fabiyi noted that in the group’s recent statement, it argued that Atiku should be disqualified on the grounds that he is too old to run and that the PDP didn’t win in 2019 because the former Vice President was not popular with Nigerians.
He added: “This logic is a tissue of nonsense. If the authors of the anti-Atiku campaign knew what they were talking about, they should not have brought up the age issue. President Joe Biden is 78 and Speaker Nancy Pelosi is 81 and she is one of the strongest and most effective lawmakers ever elected in the United States.”
Fabiyi said Nigerians are currently facing their worst economic nightmare; insecurity is getting worse as schools are closed down because of constant attacks by bandits; food prices are so expensive that survival is becoming a serious challenge for most ordinary Nigerians.
He lamented that Nigerians have been forced into prayers because APC leaders have run out of ideas, while Nigeria’s unity is currently facing its severest crisis, adding that the country is so badly divided that Nigerians are losing interest in their own country.
Fabiyi said in the face of these challenges, Atiku is the only politician adequately prepared to rescue the country.
According to him, He is not a provincial politician; is a bridge builder; he doesn’t believe the winner takes all; he is broadminded. Atiku’s greatest asset is his unifying vision and even his worst enemy cannot deny this fact.