Osita Okechukwu, a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), says former Vice President Atiku Abubakar’s presidential bid will fail because it is against the principle of power rotation between the south and north.

Mr Okechukwu, a frontline member of the ruling APC, said this when he spoke with journalists in Abuja on Sunday.

He referred to the patriotic position of APC northern governors’ letter to President Muhammadu Buhari on June 4, as evidence that the rotation of the presidency between the North and South is intended to unite the country.

Recalling former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s statement that it’ll be an injustice if the power does not shift to the South, Mr Okechukwu said Mr Abubakar was not a unifier as he claimed.

“My take is that Atiku is not a unifier and cannot defeat the Northern Governors Forum, Buhari, Obasanjo, Adebanjo, Clark and the sophisticated northern electorate by his mission to win by dividing the north and the south.

“It is an unforced error to think he can manipulate our fault lines and the abundance of unifier patriots of the north. The northern electorate are very sophisticated, they voted for Zik, Abiola and Obasanjo,” he said.

The APC chieftain added, “These unifier patriotic forces won’t allow him no matter his gusto to trample and rubbish the good works of patriots who sacrificed their presidential ambition and instituted the rotation convention in our political firmament.”

Mr Okechukwu also alleged that Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers was not pleased with the presidential candidate because Mr Abubakar “ breached” PDP’s constitution and manipulated Governor Aminu Tambuwal.

Responding to suggestions that the PDP candidate may be running on the trajectory that democracy confers the right to vote and be voted for, said, “Please, don’t forget that we have unforgettable unification lessons. One, is that Atiku violently breached PDP’s constitution, which expressly provided for rotation of power. This places in doubt his unifier claim.”

“Secondly, he decamped to APC in 2014 on the pretext that former President Goodluck Jonathan breached power rotation to the north. Then it was the turn of the north, not now.

“Thirdly, in 2018, unifiers nationalists like Wike obliged PDP northerners an open field, when all southerners in obedience to rotation convention did not participate in the PDP presidential primary in Port Harcourt. He was the main beneficiary.

“Fourthly, Senators Ayu and Adamu, both northerners, were elected chairmen of PDP & APC respectively anchored on the sure foot – Turn of the South.”

He challenged all unifiers and genuine democrats to join hands and stop Mr Abubakar before he divides the North and the South by rubbishing the political power rotation arrangement between the two regions, “which is the bond of our unity and the health of our democracy.”

Mr Okechukwu said Mr Obasanjo’s statement that a wrong outcome of the 2023 general election could consume Nigeria is a veiled warning of the dangers of voting for another northern presidential candidate to succeed President Muhammadu Buhari.

(NAN)