A former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has urged members of a political pressure group – Fix Nigeria Group on Zoning and Age to target “statutory delegates” ahead of the opposition Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) Presidential primary, so as to achieve their goal.
Atiku gave the task Wednesday at his meeting with the Group on sundry issues concerning the 2023 election, especially as it relates to the issue of zoning and age.
“In the draft Electoral Act, we have three options: direct, indirect and consensus. Each political party will now decide which option it will adopt. Then, we will know. But my senses tell me that the PDP will go for the indirect primaries. Because, we believe that that is the most efficient and that is the less expensive and also it brings politically enlightened members of the party to make a very important decision for the party, on behalf of the party. So, we still have a little bit of time to wait. Hopefully, before the end of this month, we will have the Electoral Bill signed into law” the former VP stressed.
Atiku asserted: “What is important is that we have people who are already statutory delegates. Meaning: governors and former governors; senators and former senators; members of the House of Representatives and former members of the House of Representatives – who are still members of our party”.
Former VP restated that members of the group should make the “statutory delegates should be our targets”, saying these “are the people that we must reach out to until the party lets us know who the elected delegates are”.
“This is how we will form the Electoral College that will elect the candidate. I believe that you will work towards…. Many of you are friends with members of the National Assembly; many of you are friends with current and past governors and so on and so forth. These are people that you should target or you should lobby and let them know that this is the person that is best suited for our party, if you want to rescue the country” Atiku stressed.
While thanking the group’s members, Atiku expressed hope that he looked forward to interacting with them, as developments occur, adding that “If there is need on your own part to be with me, fine; if there is need for my own part to be with you, good enough. I request through the High Chief (Raymond Dokpesi)”.
He commended members of the group on what they have done so far by enlightening the citizens of this country on the choices before us as a country, saying: “I have never seen this country have so many challenges at the same time. Sometimes when I lay down on my bed, I begin to wonder whether I should go for this thing or not, because, the challenges are just too many. All my life, I have never seen the country in such a bad situation”.
“As far as the unity of the country is concerned, we are more divided, in fact more divided even than when we fought the civil war. We were never as divided as this. We never had breakdown of law and order like this. When we fought the civil war, it was confined in a particular place, every other place was peaceful and we didn’t have this kind of poverty where even the farmer could not go the field to plant what he will eat, not to talk of commercial quantity.
“So, it is daunting task for anybody to come and turn things around. And, I have heard people talk about ‘oh… we should give it to a young man, or we should not give it to an old man, we should give it to a middle aged man, and so on and so forth.’ Of course, they have the freedom of speech and they can say anything. But fundamentally, the constitution says that all of us can contest. The constitution has not barred anyone of us. There is no zoning in the constitution. There is none. I was a member of the Constituent Assembly that drafted this very constitution. Then, as a multi-ethnic and multi-religious country, we felt that there should be a sense of belonging. I remember that I had a very heated argument with the Late Dr. Alex Ekwueme at the Constitutional Conference. I said, ‘Alex, you want to bring in zoning because you want to breakaway this country.’ We had very heated debate with him and later on, I apologized to him and told him: ‘you reason better than myself. I was emotional in my reasoning. I think the zonal thing that you are proposing is a good thing” Atiku insisted.
He assured members that he would observe and implement whatever will bring about the peace, unity and stability of this country, recalling that he met an Emir three nights ago; “he is not from my state. He is from one of the other states and he said to me that: ‘you know why I support you strongly to be president?’ What are you looking for at this age? You have married finish, you don born finish. You have everything. But my fear is that if I go and give it to a young man, he may be looking for women to marry; looking for a car to buy or a house to build. Now what are we saying?’ I laughed. I said: ‘well, it doesn’t follow. God endows leadership. You can have a young thirty years old man and he will do better than an old man. So, leadership is an endowed attribute of God. We should try to look for such a person who has been endowed”
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