Atiku Would Have Failed As President — Bode George
• Says PDP reconciliation committee can’t go far
Former Deputy National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Olabode George,said yesterday that there were chances that party’s presidential flag bearer in the 2023 election,Alhaji Atiku Abubakar would have failed as president if he had won at the polls.
He said Atiku’s emergence as president in 2023 would have created many problems for the country including unstable polity.
Fielding questions on Arise Television, George said the PDP is crisis ridden today because of the choice of Atiku as its presidential candidate at a time the party also had its chairman (Iyorchia Ayu) from the north.
“By the time Ayu left, he should have left long before the election. There was an agreement. It was the emergence of Atiku from the north as a presidential candidate that completely disorganised the norm of the party,” he said.
Continuing, he said: “The moment we interfered with it, manipulating the whole process to satisfy Atiku, that’s where the problem started. For us to pretend as if there was not a problem, we are just wasting time.
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“Let us stand by the truth because it is only the truth that would liberate you. When we had that election, we divided the party (PDP) into two.”
He did not see Atiku succeeding as president under the circumstances.
His words: “If Atiku had won, I would have stayed in my house because I know for real that in future he would collapse. This country would never accept.
“If he had won that election you think this country would have been stable? Because somebody from the north had just finished eight years and our own norm is that after the eight years, the presidential candidate must come to the south. Those who are running around for appointments, we wish them best of luck.”
He said the PDP has no moral right to query the “nuisances and nuances going on in this country by the people in government.”
The PDP, according to him,“ got some deeper problems”, with three factions battling for the soul of the party “and it’s not working.”
He declined his appointment as a member of the Disciplinary Committee set up to sanction members alleged to have worked against the party in the 2023 general elections.
He said he could not work under Chief Tom Ikimi who is the chairman of the committee.
He said: “I know Tom very well, he met me in this party. The founding fathers handed over to us. So the culture of the party, the do’s and don’ts are with us. So you don’t make me be a member under somebody that I know in terms of hierarchy of the party, and say I should go and serve under him. I made that observation to them. And they said are you going to come, I said no, I’m not.
“I will not serve under Ikimi. I’m being very frank with myself. How much information or depth does he have concerning our party? You don’t do things like that. It’s an observation and I’ve told the Chairman. At this age, I’m ready to stay home.
“Just setting up a committee, where will it lead you?”
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