Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, has tackled Nigeria’s former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, for boasting that he will always get the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)’s presidential ticket.

Atiku made the assertion when talking to journalist after his meeting with his former boss, Olusegun Obasanjo.

Atiku visited the former President at his Abeokuta residence on Saturday, February, 26, 2022, and stopped on his way out to speak briefly with newsmen.

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

This ‘bragging’ by Atiku appears to have ruffled a lot of feathers within the PDP and Wike has come out to express his discontent.

Talking on a Channels Television program, the governor described Atiku as the chairman of the founding fathers of the party and as such is entitled to benefit from the party.

However, Wike said he was disappointed that the former vice president made that kind of statement which in his own opinion is a clear disregard 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 express hopes that, being a reasonable person, Atiku would have realised that his statement may not have augured too well amongst the PDP family.

Although he’s yet to formally declared his intention run, it has been widely speculated that Atiku will make a last ditch attempt to become Nigeria’s president in 2023.

Indeed, the former Vice President has been touring the country, meeting political heavyweights to seek support and endorsement to ascend the seat currently being occupied by President Muhammadu Buhari.

Atiku challenged Buhari in the 2019 presidential election but now faced a stiff competition to reclaim the PDP ticket to try again in 2023.

Apart from the issue of zoning, it’s believed that some interests in the party are opposed to his emergence as the flag bearer in the next year election.
(Pulse NG)