According to a source close to the former president Goodluck Jonathan, he has not approved the Atiku/Okowa presidential ticket, and certain PDP members are responsible for staging the meeting between Jonathan and Okowa in order to obtain a fictitious endorsement.
Recall that Ifeanyi Okowa, the vice presidential candidate for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), was supposedly declared by Jonathan to be the new vice president of Nigeria while he was entertaining Okowa.
Given that it’s a joint ticket, this was allegedly a huge statement of support and an endorsement for PDP presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar.
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At the meeting last Wednesday, Jonathan held Okowa’s hand and was quoted to have said; “Our incoming vice-president — he has served two tenures as a governor.”
A source at the meeting organized by the governor of Bauchi State, Bala Mohammed, rejected the alleged endorsement, claiming that the former president has a soft spot for Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, whom he has repeatedly supported morally and in other ways prior to the general election of 2023.
Jonathan is not pleased that the PDP converted the private visit into an endorsement for its presidential candidate, a close ally of the former president told Newsmen.
He said that journalists were not permitted to observe the private encounter and chat. Unbeknownst to the meeting’s host (Jonathan), some PDP attendees secretly recorded the event and released it online to give the impression that the former president had endorsed Atiku.
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According to the source, the visitors, who were accompanied by the governor of Bauchi, brought kola nuts for Jonathan to pray for the “incoming vice president” (Okowa), but the former president just used their words to do so.
Our source told Newsmen: “You know that President Jonathan has a soft spot for the Bauchi governor who led the delegation. Atiku who had made several efforts to get Jonathan’s support was not even part of the delegation.
“Jonathan was surprised when his attention was drawn to the news on the social media that he had endorsed Atiku. That did not happen but as a statesman, he just let it go instead of putting up a statement denying it.
“ It was to forestall the PDP making a political capital of the visit that Jonathan’s aides prevented the media from being in the meeting but who knew that some hawks in the party had planned to use it to gain some mileage.”
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The source added that the former president is backing the presidential ambition of Labour Party’s Peter Obi, adding that the LP candidate had visited Jonathan at least three times since the conclusion of the party primaries unlike candidates of other parties.
“You know that Obi is very close to Jonathan for obvious reasons. When Oga was in power, Obi was one of those close to him and they have continued to enjoy the relationship till now. I am sure that is why many people are surprised when they started to read that he has endorsed Atiku/Okowa ticket. Jonathan is a statesman and he treats all the presidential candidates with respect but people should not misunderstand that as an endorsement,” he said.
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