2023: Disquiet In PDP Over Atiku’s Continuous Stay In Dubai
… leaders, associates irked by ex-VP’s ‘abandonment ’ of party to govs
He has lost touch with those who crowned him for the 2019 poll –Aduwo
An intractable vexation is building up in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) against former Vice-President Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, over his continuous domicile in Dubai, the United Arab Emirate (UAE) with less than two years to the 2023 general election.
Abubakar was the presidential candidate of the PDP in the 2019 general election. He, however, lost to the incumbent and candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), President Muhammadu Buhari.
The former VP jetted out of Nigeria to Dubai in 2019, few weeks after he lost the election to Buhari.
Although his legal team proceeded to court to challenge the outcome of the election, the Supreme Court, however, affirmed Buhari’s victory at the February 23, 2019 poll.
After about eight months in the UAE, the Wazirin Adamawa returned to Nigeria in September for his son’s wedding. He went back to the Arabian country and returned again in November 2019. He has since domiciled in the UAE since late 2019
Raising concerns on the continuous stay of the former presidential candidate in Dubai, a former National Working Committee (NWC) member of the party, who also served as Secretary in the Atiku 2019 campaign, told New Telegraph in confidence that Abubakar is not only damaging his political pedigree by choosing to stay in the Arab country for over two years, but also limiting the chances of the party ahead of the 2023 race.
He lamented that the strategy to stay abroad and be commenting on national issues through social media was demeaning to the PDP’s flagbearer’s supporters, adding that most of them are already looking elsewhere to channel their strength.
“You can’t leave your followers, supporters and the party in the cold to fight for themselves all alone and you, the captain, chose to stay in Dubai, it is not done.
“Our party has no president since 2015, and as the presidential candidate in the last election, you are supposed to take the gauntlet and lead us especially at a time like this.
“Take a look at our party, it is rudderless. We have lost a governor in the South East to the APC and some others are still threatening to leave.
“Look at the way the country is, what difference would press statements and social media postings do in all of these? We seriously need to evaluate the sense of patriotism of Turakin Adamawa,” he said.
