Former Vice President Atiku
Abubakar stood before a cheering crowd in his home state of Adamawa on
Saturday, announcing he will seek the Peoples Democratic Party ticket for
president next February.
Decrying the large-scale killings
that have touched many parts of the country in recent months before thousands
packed into Yola town square at the heart of Nigeria’s north-east, Mr Abubakar
said President Muhammadu Buhari’s government would be remembered more for its
bloodshed than any development it brought to citizens.
“Today, we are witnessing the
most insecure atmosphere,” Mr Abubakar said of the killings largely blamed on
herdsmen, bandits and militias, before promising to tackle them headlong if
elected. “More people died under APC than people killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.”
Mr Abubakar told a crowd chanting
“Atiku! Atiku!” shortly after 2:00 p.m. that he would curtail inflation and
unemployment rate in the country, saying Mr Buhari and the ruling All
Progressives Congress have displayed a common lack of capacity when it comes to
the issues that matter to citizens the most.
“Today, we have the highest
unemployment rate in history of this country, more than one million of our
youth are unemployed,” Mr Abubakar said, adding that the PDP would secure the
country, ensure unity and security of life and property.
He also hit Mr Buhari at one of
his most vulnerable areas: “Today, we are more divided than at any other time
in Nigeria’s history.”
The president has been accused of
packing key federal offices with people from his region, with critics slamming
him as flouting the federal character and affirmative action principles
enshrined in federal laws as necessary fabrics for holding an ethnically and
religiously diverse entity like NIgeria together.
Mr Buhari has often pushed back
against the claims, saying instead that his appointments have been balanced
where they are not skewed towards the south.
Mr Abubakar is only one of
several top political players eyeing the PDP ticket, having other top
contenders like Sule Lamido and Ahmed Makarfi. Recently, political analysts
expect the race to get even more fluid when the likes of Musa Kwankwaso, Aminu
Tambuwal and other elements of the so-called newPDP make their expected formal
return to the largest opposition entity.
Yet, Mr Abubakar’s stature as a
former vice-president and serial presidential contender with vast political and
financial muscle made him a top favourite for the ticket. He has visited most
of the southern states for consultations, and his office said he plans to take
the tour to all the 36 states before the party’s primaries in a few months’
time.
He also sees himself in a good
light, aiming directly at Mr Buhari rather than his party ticket challengers.
But critics are dismissing his
campaign as a sideshow that would soon hit the rocks because of Mr Abubakar’s
unanswered allegations about corruption.
Still dogging his ambition has
been the mystery surrounding his failure to travel to the United States since
he was named in a corruption trial in that country the previous decade. He has
dismissed all allegations of corruption and challenged his opponents to bring
forth any evidence of his culpability in graft practices.
Although Mr Abubakar said the
Nigerian Constitution did not require that a citizen must possess American
travel credentials to be eligible for presidential election, he also said that
he had approached the U.S. Embassy in Nigeria for visa, but was turned down.
One of his close associates revealed recently that he may still apply for
visa before the 2019 election.
But neither the former vice
president nor his aides have agreed to entertain questions about whether they
would cooperate with U.S. authorities to release his immigration status to the
public. The U.S. border authorities said in early 2017 that Mr
Abubakar’s immigration status could be made public, but only if he gives his
legal backing to such disclosure.
With him at today’s rally were
Uche Secondus, the party’s chairman, Gbenga Daniel, his campaign director, and
Ben Murray-Bruce, a serving senator who also emceed the televised event.
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