Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar on Tuesday revealed he did not select former Lagos State governor Bola Tinubu as his running mate in 2007 when he joined the Action Congress because of his preference for the south-east.
Atiku made the comments while speaking about alleged attempts to block the south-east from getting the presidential ticket of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the 2023 elections.
Speaking at a meeting with members of PDP board of trustees (BoT) in Abuja, Atiku disclosed that when he defected to Action Congress in 2006, he was given some conditions before he got the presidential ticket for the 2007 election.
“When I joined the Action Congress (AC), which my friend, Bola, set up, he gave me a set of conditions for giving me the ticket. He said that I should make him vice president. I said no, I am not going to make you vice president; instead I took Ben Obi,” he said.
“When I got the ticket again to run under the PDP, I took another Obi (Peter Obi) coincidentally. So, there is absolutely no reason why they should say that there is a deliberate attempt to exclude the south-east in political participation or power sharing.”
The former vice president noted that the 2023 general elections offers the PDP opportunity to return to power.
“I am worried and you should be worried too that if we do not win, it means we will be in opposition again for the next eight years,” he said.
“By the next eight years, I don’t know how many will be left in politics and it may even ultimately lead to the death of the party because people gravitate, particularly in developing countries, towards governments.”
