Frontrunners Atiku Abubakar and Bola Tinubu attack former President Olusegun Obasanjo for endorsing their rival, Gov Peter Obi, for president.
Atiku (PDP) mildly downplayed the impact of Obasanjo’s endorsement but Tinubu (APC) appeared to take it personally.
Tinubu’s campaign Council called Obassnjo a political paperweight and a serial loser in presidential endorsements.
“…Tinubu will not lose sleep over Obasanjo’s move as Obasanjo is notorious for always opposing progressive political forces as he did with the late MKO Abiola in 1993.
“The endorsement is actually worthless because the former president does not possess any political goodwill or leverage anywhere in Nigeria to make anyone win the councillorship election let alone win a presidential election.
“It is a political paperweight.”
Incidentally, the APC candidate mobilised his party’s heavyweights five months ago to solicit Obasanjo’s support and endorsement.
Both sides refused to say what happened during their secret meeting at the former President’s home in Abeokuta.
Vice President Atiku Abubakar equally visited President Obasanjo, his former boss for the eight years they managed the Nigerian presidency.
In contrast, the Atiku team accused Obasanjo of inflicting pains on Nigerians through his endorsement of President Buhari in 2019.
It described the Obi endorsement as “surprising” since Abubakar has better leadership credentials to offer Nigerians than Obi.
Abubakar said the endorsement may be remarkable but “remains individualistic and cannot redirect Nigerians from their determination” to support him.
Nigerians are determined to “rally with the more experienced, more proficient, and more accepted presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar, to rescue and rebuild our nation from the APC’s misrule,” he said.
The PDP said Nigeria’s current challenges require “a tried-and-tested” leader and not “a candidate that has not had any experience in governance at the national level.”
Atiku and Tinubu attack Obasanjo for endorsing Obi
Below are the APC and PDP statements:
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