Posted by From Kenny Ashaka, Kaduna on
Vice President Atiku Abubakar has raised alarm that President Olusegun Obasanjo was not ready to quit office in May this year despite the PDP primaries which threw up the Governor of Katsina State, Alhaji Umar Musa Yar'Adua as the presidential candidate of the party.
Vice President Atiku Abubakar has raised alarm that President Olusegun Obasanjo was not ready to quit office in May this year despite the PDP primaries which threw up the Governor of Katsina State, Alhaji Umar Musa Yar'Adua as the presidential candidate of the party.
Speaking in the BBC Hausa Service programme monitored in Kaduna yesterday, Atiku said the only way President Obasanjo can be eased out of office was for Nigerians to tolerate him (Obasanjo) for the remaining three months of his tenure in office. He said Nigerians should be patient with the President so that they can assist him in packing his bags and baggage to his Otta farm when his tenure expires on May 29.
The Vice President who described Obasanjo as a lawless public officer who had no regard for the rule of law, however, said that the alliance between the All Nigeria People's Party (ANPP) and Action Congress (AC) would force Obasanjo to leave office at the expiration of his tenure.
'Nigerians should remember that the President does not obey court orders or the rule of law. It is not a new thing for him to disobey court orders.
'But this is gradually coming to an end. Since we have been patient with him for eight years, what is left now is about two to three months. All we need to do is to assist him pack his bags and baggage to his farm," the Vice President said.
Atiku said that there was no way the feud between him and the President would affect his chances at the polls but that there was nothing Obasanjo had not done to scuttle his ambition but failed.
His words: 'There is nothing he (Obasanjo) has not done to dampen my heart or to deprive me from contesting but God did not allow him. Whatever he would do to stop me from contesting, not only in PDP but in other parties…
'I am determined that the election is not his own but for the people. I will contest by all means."
Commenting on the AC/ANPP alliance, he said that there were three main reasons why the two parties started working together.
'First, we are in alliance to ensure that they conduct elections and it is not stolen from Nigerians. Second, it is to ensure that he (Obasanjo) leaves office at the expiration of his tenure."
The Vice President said the two parties would achieve their objective by forming an alliance in fielding candidates in states, the National Assembly and also at the federal level.
'But if the first and second are not achieved, the third one will not be possible. Therefore, people should understand that the alliance is not for fielding candidates alone."
Asked whether or not he would step down for the ANPP presidential candidate, General Muhammadu Buhari, he said the two parties had not reached the stage where one person would step down for the other.
'We have not yet reached the stage on who should step down for the other. Why don't you ask me why Gen. Buhari should not also step down for me, rather than asking me, why shouldn't I step down for Gen. Buhari," he queried.