An aide to the FCT Minister on Public Communication and Social Media, Lere Olayinka, has described the resignation of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar from the Peoples Democratic Party ahead of the 2027 election, as “good riddance to bad rubbish”.
Speaking on Thursday on Channels Television breakfast show, Sunrise Daily, Olayinka noted that with the former VP’s exit, the party could gather itself together.
He said, “Well, my first reaction yesterday was that, Atiku Abubakar leaving the PDP, to me, is good riddance to bad rubbish. It is like how our Hausa people will say ‘sai gobe’. One thing I would have loved to see in the reportage yesterday was that the headline should have been ‘Atiku Abubakar leaves PDP again.’
“Because he has been leaving. Since 2007, he has been leaving. So if he chose to leave now, fine. Then the party can now begin to look at itself and bring itself together again. Unfortunately, it is too late, because like I’ve said many times, Atiku Abubakar happened to be like the weapon fashioned against the PDP.”
Addressing Atiku’s alliance with the coalition under the African Democratic Congress, the media aide cited Atiku’s anti-party moves against the PDP, noting that Atiku may yet return to the PDP if his journey in the coalition did not favour him.
“In 2003, PDP’s effort to win Lagos State was frustrated by Alhaji Atiku Abubakar when he was Vice-President, and that was how anti-party started in PDP. In 2018, you can google it, when he went to Lagos, he personally apologized for the role he played in frustrating the effort of the PDP to win Lagos State in 2003.
“In 2007, Atiku Abubakar holds the record of the first Nigerian as vice-president, sitting vice-president, that went to another party, while still holding the mandate of the PDP as vice-president. He went and formed Action Congress with the other people, and he contested as presidential candidate of Action Congress in 2007, even as a sitting vice-president, holding the mandate of the PDP.
“In 2014, it was the same Atiku Abubakar that led the rebellion, that pulled down the PDP, that took the PDP out of power. The only thing that interests Alhaji Atiku Abubakar is to be president of Nigeria, and I begin to wonder, is it that a doctor prescribed presidency to Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, so that if you don’t become president, something will happen to you? Because that is the way it is.
“The only thing that is important to Alhaji Atiku Abubakar is Atiku and Abubakar. The moment he’s in this party, he cannot get a ticket to contest, he moves to another party. And let me also say this. Write this one down. After this experiment in their coalition, which me I call coalition of confusion, he will still leave their coalition and probably come back to the PDP, as he has been doing,” he said.
Olayinka also faulted Atiku’s release of his resignation letter while the country was still mourning the death of former President Muhammadu Buhari, stating, “The same Atiku has been in Daura, he could not even wait for the seven days mourning period of Buhari to end before making a political decision, I don’t understand why somebody would be so desperate to this extent.”
He advised the PDP to begin putting its house in order, stating however that it may not be necessarily for the PDP to “make a good showing” in 2027.
“What I believe is that the PDP should now begin to put its house in order. It might not be necessarily to make a good showing next year, I mean 2027, because it is very close now,” he said.
