The Senior Special Assistant to the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister, Nyesom Wike on Public Communications, Lere Olayinka, has blamed the crisis rocking the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on former Vice President Atiku Abubakar.
He submitted that Atiku has always been putting his personal interest above party interest, and the leadership of the PDP have so far failed to call him to order.
Henzodaily reports Olayinka made the submission during an interview with Punch on Monday, where he was asked about the internal challenges facing the party and the probability of the PDP challenging for power in 2027.
The media aide to the FCT Minister, in his response, blamed Atiku for the crisis rocking the PDP. He said the former Vice President has always been leading rebellion in the PDP and is responsible for the current sorry state of the party including the famous loss of former President Goodluck Jonathan in the 2015 election.
Olayinka submitted that if Atiku withdraws from the 2027 presidency, the crisis rocking the PDP would calm down.
He charged Atiku to, in the light of current happenings and in the best interest of the PDP, step down from running for the presidency and support whoever emerges as the party’s presidential candidate.
According to him, Atiku is not the only one in PDP, and everything should not always be about him.
“The problem is what I mentioned earlier. Lack of principle of reward and punishment. People who openly worked against the party in the past, what happened to them? In 2003, I know what someone did to ensure that the PDP did not take Lagos at that time. Imagine PDP winning Lagos State in 2003, look at the implications, but they made sure the party did not win Lagos State that time. They sabotaged the efforts of the party. The same person who sabotaged the effort of the party in 2003 went on to form another party, Action Congress, in 2007 and contested as president under the party as a sitting vice president, nothing was done to him. He went to another party when he failed in the election, he returned to the PDP and the party welcomed him, instead of sanctioning him and telling him that what he did was wrong and getting him to apologise and commit that he would not do it again. Nothing like that was done to him and that was why in 2014, the same person led another rebellion. If this person had not led that rebellion of 2014, the PDP would not be where it is today, because the then president, Goodluck Jonathan, would not have lost that election in 2014.
“The foundation of what is happening to the PDP started in 2003, followed up in 2007 and climaxed in 2014, led by a single individual and that individual is still telling us that he is the only one that can fly the flag of the party in 2027, it will not work. That is the bone of contention.
If former Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, comes out now to say ‘I won’t be contesting again,’ this crisis in the PDP will go down, because people are now wise. In 2019, after picking the ticket and losing, he went to Dubai and stayed for more than two years, leaving the party in the hands of people like Wike, Fayose, and governors then, Bala Mohammed and others. They were the ones who funded the party and stayed by it. He came back, then with whatever sentiments again, he picked the ticket for the 2023 election and it ended up the way it ended. I believe that that kind of person should now be sincere enough to say ‘I have tried, this party has also tried for me, let me now become a father figure, let me now sit back. I will support whoever emerges as the party candidate’. It should not be him always, he is not the only one in the PDP,” Olayinka submitted.