DROP OBI OR FORGET 2019, NORTH TELLS ATIKU

Group, Northern Youth Leaders Forum, NYLF, has tasked Alhaji Atiku Abubarkar, the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, to jettison the idea of using the former governor of Anambra State, Mr. Peter Obi, as his running mate if he wants to enjoy the support of northern youths in 2019.

 

NYLF, which serves as the umbrella body for 46 northern youth organisations, with over six million members, equally threatened to mobilize massively against the PDP if Abubakar sticks with Obi as his deputy.

National chairman of the northern group, Elliot Afiyo, made this known in Abeokuta on Tuesday while speaking with newsmen.

Afiyo, said that the body had been instrumental to the electoral victories of successive presidents since 1999, including the incumbent president, Muhammadu Buhari, stated that NYLF played a critical role in reconciling former president Olusegun Obasanjo with Atiku, who was his vice president.

He explained that apart from the ruckus Obi’s choice has caused in the South East, which according to him, is largely responsible for the impending defection of Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, from the PDP, Obi is viewed as anti-North and a major sponsor of Igbo separatist group, Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).

He further added that over 70 percent of Emirs and other traditional rulers in the north will not support Atiku’s choice of deputy, maintaining that the PDP would fail to produce the next president should the party eventually go with the Atiku/Obi ticket.

“As far as we want Atiku to succeed, he has no alternative than to drop Peter Obi, and with the contention between Peter Obi’s group and the Ike Ekweremadu group, it is not political convenient again to pick a running mate from the South East.
Because whichever group you pick from, the other group will work against them.

“Then, in the North, we consider Peter Obi as anti-north. This is no sentiment, apart from the way he treated the northerners when he was the governor of Anambra State, we consider him as a bonafide member and major sponsor of IPOB.

“In fact, 70 percent of emirs and traditional rulers from the north will not support Peter Obi as the vice president.”

WHAT ATIKU SAID ABOUT HIS RUNNING MATE, PETER OBI

Afiyo was of the view that it would not be politically wise for Atiku to pick his running mate from the South West which, according to him, remains a strong base of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), advising the PDP to turn its radar instead to the South South.

The NYLF leader suggested that either Rivers State governor Nyesom Wike or his Bayelsa State counterpart, Seriake Dickson, should be considered as Atiku’s prospective running mate, if the opposition party is serious about unseating President Muhammadu Buhari next year.