By Adeleye Kunle
Atiku Abubakar, the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) presidential candidate for 2023, is said to have traveled from Dubai to the United Kingdom (UK), Track News reports.
Atiku has been out of the country for about three weeks now, amid the crisis rocking the PDP over the selection of Ifeanyi Okowa as his running mate, even as some PDP leaders have openly expressed their displeasure with the choice of Okowa and how Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, has been treated in the saga.
In response to internal party strife, TrackNews recalls that the PDP BoT Chairman, Senator Walid Jibrin, stated that a reconciliation team to be led by Atiku himself will soon get to work and visit disgruntled members as soon as he (Atiku) returns to Nigeria.
However, information obtained by TrackNews does not indicate that Atiku intends to return to Nigeria.
According to reports, Atiku has relocated to the United Kingdom for his Master’s Degree Convocation at Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge.
The University’s convocation will take place in Chelmsford, Cambridge, and Peterborough from Monday, July 11 to Friday, July 29.
According to TrackNews, Atiku will complete his Master’s degree in International Relations at the institution in November 2021.
Speaking on the former Vice President’s continued absence from the country, a PDP leader in Plateau State asked, “He wasn’t in Ekiti, won’t he be in Osun too?” How are we going to account for his absence? Is it possible that he is unaware of the significance of the elections in Ekiti and Osun? Perhaps he believes that by winning the primary, he automatically wins the general election.”
A former PDP National Working Committee member also expressed concern that “even during Sallah celebrations, our presidential candidate, a Muslim, is not here to celebrate with our people.” This is unfortunate because there will be no other Eid-el-Kabir celebrations before the election in February of next year.
He went on to say that Atiku appears disconnected from the people he wants to lead, and he urged the party leadership to address the situation as soon as possible.
“It will be difficult to deal with if the former Vice President’s disenchantment grows beyond this level.”
“Well-meaning party stakeholders should step forward now to avoid a repeat of 2015 and 2019,” he concluded.
Many PDP stakeholders have made reference to how Atiku left Nigeria after losing the 2019 presidential election and spent over seven months in Dubai.
