Atiku Abubakar, the 2023 presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has dismissed insinuations that he was planning to dump the party for ruling All Progressives Congress, APC.
Speaking with PDP women members of the Board of Trustees, BoT, who visited him to help save the party from total collapse, the former Vice President insisted on a coalition to push out the APC-led government in 2027.
Atiku Abubakar said that the coalition movement was not just a political strategy, but a necessity to challenge the ruling party and rebuild the country.
Vanguard gathered that Atiku told the women, led by the former Minister of Women Affairs and ex- National Women Leader of the party, Hajia Inna Ciroma, that a coalition is workable, and would assure good results.
According to him, the National Party of Nigeria, NPN, the ruling party in the Second Republic, had formed an alliance with the Nigeria Peoples Party, NPP, and it was called NPN-NPP accord.
He added that when the coalition is achieved, the name of PDP will not be affected.
Atiku Abubakar was said to have told the PDP women about the status of the pan-Nigerian coalition that he was building in conjunction with other leaders and stakeholders across political divides and regions.
He informed them that the movement was being powered by Nigerians desirous of reclaiming and rebuilding their country from across the nooks and crannies of our country.
What he told us – PDP women
When Vanguard called the leader of the PDP women BoT on the nature of the visit, Ciroma said: “We, as PDP Board of Trustees, BoT, members, the conscience of the party, decided to take this bold decision to come into the crisis the party is going through.
“We, as mothers, are worried and disturbed with what the party is going through at the moment. We are disturbed that the party has no leadership and any organisation without leadership cannot stand.
“We are worried and disturbed. We cannot fold our hands and see things go bad in our great party.
“We decided to visit former Vice President Atiku Abubakar to complain about what we are not happy with, to brainstorm with him on the way forward, on how to save the party from total collapse.
“We told him that there must be leadership and direction in the party. We had very fruitful discussions with the 2023 Presidential candidate of the party.
“He told us that he was not leaving the party, as he discussed much on the coalition and the need for us to key in.
“We also discussed party funding; that parties should be well funded so that no single parson can control the party.
“Based on funding, parties must belong to the people and everyone has a role to play in the growth of the party.”
… defections, crisis
Recall that disturbed by the persistent internal strife both before and after the 2023 elections, leading to increasing instability and divisions across the Party, PDP, women members of the Board of Trustees, BoT, moved in last week to save the party from what they described as total collapse.
Also following the gale of defections sweeping through the ranks and strongholds of the country’s leading opposition party, PDP, the BoT women took it upon themselves to help address the wave of defections and other internal crises that have plagued the party over the past years.
As part of the moves, the women last week Tuesday began the mission by having a marathon meeting with the Acting National Chairman, Amb. Umar Damagum, for over one and half hours at Wadata Plaza, PDP National Secretariat.
In order to achieve this, the BoT women constituted a team that will reach out to PDP governors, leaders, stakeholders and other members to discuss the problems, why the crisis and the way forward.
