2027: Tinubu, Atiku urged to allow fresh ideas for unity

A member of the Obidient Movement and former Labour Party’s candidate for the National Assembly in the 2023 election, Dr Ezeh Emmanuel Ezeh, has called on a former Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, to shelve his intention to contest the 2027 presidential election in the interest of equity and national unity.   Ezeh noted that the […]

A member of the Obidient Movement and former Labour Party’s candidate for the National Assembly in the 2023 election, Dr Ezeh Emmanuel Ezeh, has called on a former Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, to shelve his intention to contest the 2027 presidential election in the interest of equity and national unity.  

Ezeh noted that the same way he called on President Bola Tinubu not to seek a second term in office but concentrate on ensuring a credible and transparent general election in 2027, that he decided to urge Atiku Abubakar to comport himself as a statesman by supporting a younger candidate in the coalition.

He disclosed that both President Tinubu and Atiku belong the old generation of Nigerian politics that was defined by transaction and influence peddling, stressing that the time has come for the two old war horses to call it a day in electoral contests.

Ezeh, who spoke to a select group of journalists in Abuja, declared that the 2027 general election would be a defining moment for Nigerian youths to take their political destiny in their own hands.

He observed that while stench of Atiku’s rumoured interest to contest the presidential ticket of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) is threatening the unity of purpose of the coalition of opposition politicians, President Tinubu’s interest in a second term has charged the nation’s polity.

He stated: “And so, these two men have put the nation into a war mood. President Tinubu is busy recruiting incumbent state governors, especially those from the South. On his part, former Vice President Atiku is busy creating the impression in the north that the coalition is all about his presidential ambition.

“Now, you find that two years to the election, Nigeria is already divided along regional lines. This is not a good omen for our country and the democracy we practice. In 2023 President Tinubu claimed that the merger of opposition parties in 2014 was his brain and therefore it was his turn to be president.

“What Atiku appears to be saying as the race to the 2027 election gathers momentum is that ADC should serve his own turn to be President. Can we not see that this mentality is puling us back as a country? Nigerians yearn for peace and progress, therefore enough of this old tactics.”

Ezeh regretted that it was the same determination to breach the power rotation principle that the former Vice President and current Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, sent the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) into political coma.

He recalled that barely one year after Atiku left APC and rejoined PDP, the former Vice President begged PDP leaders to give him the presidential ticket of the party, while insisting that he was the only person that could beat President Muhammadu Buhari in 2019.

“In 2023, the same Atiku rallied powerful northern leaders to support his quest for the PDP presidential ticket. Senator Aminu Tambuwal stepped down for Atiku the same way Senators Ahmed Makarfi and Ibrahim Dankwambo stepped aside for him to contest in 2019.

“in 2027, Atiku should rest and demonstrate to President Tinubu that their time has been spent and allow younger Nigerians to take up the challenge of nation building. Both President Tinubu and Alhaji Atiku should recognize that they are like the two sides of an old coin and stop distracting Nigerian youths,” he asserted.

Ezeh, advised Atiku against listening to few rent-taking politicians from South East that have been urging him on with the deceptive argument that he can harvest the Northern votes like Buhari to defeat President Tinubu, stressing that Nigerians are tired of tribal politics.

The Harvard-trained Entrepreneur, however, noted that Nigerians have already identified with the coalition platform of ADC based on Mallam Nasir El-Rufai’s truthful statement that the Presidency should remain in the South of Nigeria until 2031.

“In fact, many Nigerians expected that Alhaji Atiku Abubakar should have supported his 2019 presidential running mate, Mr Peter Obi, for the PDP presidential ticket instead of jumping into the arena to contest with Wike unlike what APC governors from the North did by zoning the presidential ticket to the South,” Ezeh remarked.