By Taiwo Adeyemi
Dr. Segun Sowunmi, a Chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP said he will ask the former Nigerian Vice-President, Atiku Abubakar again if he is contesting for the office of the President during the 2027 presidential elections.
Sowunmi, who served as a former spokesperson to Atiku maintained that he has asked Atiku on two different occasions about his rumored presidential ambition but he (Atiku) declined to give a response.
Atiku has contested for the office of Nigerian Presidency for the sixth time but failed in every attempt.
Sowunmi while featuring as a guest on Diamond FM, Ilorin popular Yoruba Language News and Current Affairs programme “E ba wa dasi”, on Thursday, 28th November, 2024 said he will ask again before making his final decision on who to support.
“I have asked Atiku Abubakar about his decision to contest the presidential election in 2027 but he hadn’t given me any response, I will ask him once again before I make my final decision”
“Atiku will have to contest to get the party ticket like every other aspirant, we must know we are facing President Bola Tinubu who is a good politician, we must pick a candidate that can defeat him”.
On the ongoing crisis affecting the major opposition party, he emphasised that the party must be reformed before standing any chance of winning the election.
“You saw the video of my visit to the former Governor of Ekiti State, Ayodele Fayose, I know him to be a man that always say the truth, I told him that we should all work together, we need to listen to all the aggrieved members that have been accused of anti-party activities”.
“Those that are accussing others of anti-party activities, have they not done that before?”.
“I am well qualified for the office of the party national chairman, the party needs a leader that is bold like me to address those members that are acting above the party, not a leader that loves money, PDP needs someone that can take action in tandem with the law of the party”.
“Nobody from the southwest has ever led the party at the national level, it’s time the region leads the party”.
“I will suggest that each geo-political zone should hold their primary before selling of expression of interest form to all aspirants, the party candidate will then emerge among the aspirants elected from all the zones”.
“The opposition party must put its house in order before thinking of winning any election, those talking about an election without reform are putting the cart before the horse, everybody has the right to contest the election”.
“I don’t like picking on anybody that the person must not contest because of age”.
“I won’t be part of those opposition members that want to turn Nigeria to a banana republic because they lost elections, they criticised the Independent Electoral Commission, INEC, the judiciary, the police and everybody.
Sowunmi furthered that it’s too early to evaluate the administration of President Tinubu, the government has made progress in some sectors and failure in other sectors.
“I will wait till after three years before I evaluate this administration because then it will be a year to the general election”.
“Tinubu has tried with the local governments financial autonomy which allows federal allocation to get to the councils directly, we must hold Governors accountable, each state is collecting regular monthly allocation from the Federal Government, the president’s drive in getting foreign investment is commendable and tax reform that will stop multiple tax in this country”
“But I shouted when Tinubu was appointing his cronies into government, many spokesperson to attack anyone that criticized his government, subsidy removal without any plan to control the inflation, floating of naira that has reduced the value of the nation currency, he started sharing palliatives to Governors, these are decisions that he took that affected the country”.