Chairman of the Northern Elders Forum (NEF), Chief Paul Unongo has said that former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has nothing to offer to Nigerians should he be elected as the country’s president.
Speaking with newsmen on Sunday, Unongo said Atiku’s cross-carpeting from one party to the other indicated that he was not firm and principled and therefore could not be compared to President Muhammadu Buhari.
Obviously taking a swipe at Atiku, Unongo stressed that whoever was seeking to be elected into office to pilot the affairs of the country come 2019 should not be an arrogant, rich and overconfident lazy candidate who feels he can jump from one party to another in a bid to buy the conscience of the people.
He added that the electorates in the northern part of the country were not going to return the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to power in 2019 no matter what the party does or who it presents as its presidential flag bearer.
His words: “What has Atiku got to offer Nigeria? Atiku would be in one party for three hours and he would abandon it and join another one for three hours and when he does not get what he wants, he jumps into another party.
“And now he is saying Atiku must be president of Nigeria. There is no single person in Nigeria that must be president. I think money tries to make some people mad, they think they can buy anything they want and everybody.
“If the PDP likes, let them field Atiku. If he contests with Buhari, he would win Atiku by 9 o’clock in the morning. Buhari is a tested and trusted principled leader. We are not for sale and the presidency is not for the highest bidder.
“We in the North have no problem on who to choose between Buhari and Atiku. We are not divided. I used to say to everybody in Nigeria that we in the North are more radical than the South.
“We can accommodate both Buhari and Atiku but the North is more mature politically and they know where to go and we are going to where we should go. But we are not going to bring PDP back to power.
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