Wike Blasts Atiku For boasting About Always Getting A PDP’s Presidential Ticket 

Atiku’s statement, according to Wike, demonstrated his disrespect for the party’s delegates.

By Omotayo Olutekunbi

Nigeria’s former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, has been chastised by Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike for claiming that he will always obtain the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential ticket.

After meeting with his old boss, Olusegun Obasanjo, Atiku made the statement to a journalist.

On Saturday, February 26, 2022, Atiku paid a visit to the former President at his Abeokuta residence and stopped to chat briefly with newsmen on his way out.

“Have I ever failed to get the ticket? I’m confident that I will still get it,” he boasted in front of the cameras.

Atiku’s ‘bragging’ appears to have ruffled a lot of PDP feathers, and Wike has stepped out to express his displeasure.

The governor identified Atiku as the chairman of the party’s founding fathers, and as such, he is entitled to benefits from the party, according to a Channels Television interview.

Wike, on the other hand, expressed disappointment that the former vice president made such a statement, which he believes shows a clear contempt for the party’s delegates.

“As a politician, you want to give confidence to your supporters so that they can continue to move on, but when you say you always take the ticket of the party, what it tells me is that may be yes…. as you know, there are those who say they’re founding father of the party, which means…. I like it to a company, like shareholders of the company.

“And like the former vice president, he appears to be the chairman of the shareholders of the company. In this case, the chairman of the founding fathers of the PDP, we’re employees, they employed us and we’re working for them, we have no problem about that.”

“As founding father, you’ll always take the majority of the profit and whatever, so be it. But I didn’t expect him, frankly speaking, to make that kind of statement that he always take the ticket of the party, that’s too far, he went too far and taking the delegates for granted.”

He went on to say that if Atiku were a rational person, he would have realized that his statement might not have gone over well with the PDP family.

Despite the fact that Atiku has yet to formally declare his intention to run, it is commonly assumed that he will make a last-ditch effort to become Nigeria’s president in 2023.

Indeed, the former Vice President has been traversing the country, meeting with political heavyweights in the hopes of gaining support and endorsement to succeed President Muhammadu Buhari.

Atiku ran against Buhari in the 2019 presidential election, but he now faces a tough fight to recapture the PDP ticket in 2023.

Apart from the zoning issue, it’s believed that some factions inside the party are opposed to him becoming the party’s presidential candidate next year.