By Sunday Ani

Former commissioner for Information in Edo State, Kassim Afegbua, has disagreed with former vice president, Atiku Abubakar, that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) would go into extinction if it failed to get its acts right in 2023. Rather, he said  it is Atiku that would go into extinction after he would have been defeated at the primary.

Afegbua stressed that the PDP had come to stay as a viable political party that would endure the test of time, insisting that once Atiku is beaten at the primary, he would go into extinction and run away to his usual destination in Dubai.

He described as a culture of desperation and huge sense of self entitlement Atiku’s rush to get the party’s presidential nomination form last week even when the party was still planning to set up a committee that would determine where the presidency would be zoned. 

“There is no sincerity of purpose. What you see is a culture of desperation and a huge sense of self entitlement as if the party was built or created for him. Only last week, the party talked about setting up a zoning committee to look into the issue; the following day, Atiku ambushed the party by purchasing the nomination form. Who does that? Where is the honesty and sincerity of purpose? Why wouldn’t he wait for the zoning committee to be composed, meet and come up with a decision? He has also set March 23, for his official declaration at the Conference Centre, without waiting for any position of the party,” he said.

He insisted that PDP would continue to wax stronger as the last hope of common man instead of going into extinction as Atiku has predicted. He noted that when Atiku left PDP in 2007 to contest in another party, the PDP still won the presidential election and became stronger in form and stature.

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“Shortly after, he returned to the PDP again, contested the primary and was defeated by former president Goodluck Jonathan. He left the party again and contested in another party, but he still failed woefully. He later joined forces with the merger committee that gave birth to the All Progressives Congress (APC) and contested the primary in Lagos with the incumbent president in 2014. He was beaten flat at the Lagos convention of the APC. Yet, PDP remained strong. Aside from losing the presidency, PDP was still able to retain 16 governorship positions across the country. The party never went into extinction; instead it has continued to remain the last hope of the common man,” he said.

He said Atiku has only been concerned about his personal ambition and not the growth of the party to deepen democracy.

The former commissioner said he had warned the PDP that it would be sacrilegious and morally reprehensible to continue to indulge Atiku and other northern aspirants in the race on who emerges the presidential candidate of the party for the 2023 election.

“I have repeatedly said for the sake of justice, equity and fairness, the ticket should be ceded to the southern part of the country. This is how to promote party cohesion, unity and oneness of purpose. It was in realisation of this, that the southern axis allowed their northern brothers to take a shot at the presidency alone and all alone in 2019. Now that it should be the turn of the South, you see the leadership of the party talking with its tongue in cheek,” he said.

He accused Atiku of abandoning his supporters after the 2019 election, and fleeing to Dubai, only to emerge from the blues again because another presidential election is around the corner. He, therefore, insisted that with or without Atiku, the PDP, as an organic party, would remain strong, viable and formidable.

‘It is presently the only hope of the common man following APC’s underperformance in the last seven years. Nigerians are looking forward to the PDP to get it right this time by fielding a candidate from the South. This position is an irrevocable one that cannot be compromised by any interplay of forces against the provisions of Article 7 of the PDP constitution. Atiku should quit the stage at this time and allow justice to prevail. I am very sure he will run away to Dubai again once he loses out,” he said.