Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, a former vice president and presidential contender for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has been mocked by a group calling itself the Peter Obi Network Group, calling him a “seventh time presidential aspirant.”
Atiku Abubakar, the former vice president and presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, made some disparaging remarks about Peter Obi, the nominee of the Labour Party for president in the 2023 election, in an interview with Arise TV just hours prior.
Atiku claimed that Obi, a former governor of Anambra State, was unable to run for president in 2023 since the Labour Party had no governors elected on its platform and no members of the National Assembly.
However, the POSN said in a statement issued by its spokesperson Sani Altukry under the heading “Atiku Abubakar takes Nigerian masses for granted” that Atiku provided unsolicited and obviously incorrect political advice on who was likely to win elections in the “recorded interview.”
He said, “The seventh time presidential aspirant reportedly claimed that today’s most popular presidential candidate, Peter Obi, cannot.
“Unfortunately, the former Vice President based his entire permutation on the assumed influence of corruption promoting and vote-buying mercenaries euphemistically called political structure, and failed to consider the unassailable powers of the masses of Nigeria, who actually are the most powerful force in a democracy and the key determinants of election victory.
“As every political philosopher knows: sovereignty resides with the people! Alhaji Atiku Abubakar’s assertion speaks to the illusions of the fascist school of thought that believes that the masses do not matter and erroneously believes that the masses cannot think for themselves.
“In essence, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar is saying that Nigerians are some kind of slaves who cannot take a political decision on their own, except as imposed on them by their slave masters.
“This erroneous idea belongs to the past, and so we assure the former Vice President and those of his class who hold such derogatory perception of Nigerians that a new Nigeria is here and Nigerians are ready to take their destiny in their own hands.
“The Peter Obi candidacy is not a mere political project but a national movement for the reawakening of Nigerians to take their destiny in their hands and break the chains and shackles for which they are derided as being ‘sub-citizens’ with the so-called structure being the deciders of where their votes shall go.
“We are banking on the votes of the millions of dissatisfied but genuinely patriotic Nigerians who want to see a truly independent, prosperous and thriving democratic Nigeria. And every day, as we move from community to community, from market to market, from mosque to mosque and from church to church, we are encouraged by the passion displayed by these Nigerians for a new, working and productive Nigeria under the leadership of Mr. Peter Obi and Senator Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed.
“We expected that the former Vice President, having confirmed the undeniable competence, integrity and wide acceptability of Mr. Peter Obi, that he would demonstrate his true love for Nigeria and a genuine desire for her progress by dropping his ambition to be President of Nigeria and endorse Mr. Peter Obi who has shown practical readiness and preparedness to retrieve Nigeria from the precipice of total collapse.
“We trust that Alhaji Abubakar will read the handwriting on the wall and do the needful.”
