2023: Atiku’ll Lose If G-5 Governors Fail To Support Him, Analysts Predict

Dr Chikezie Obasi, a public affairs analyst, says the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in the 2023 elections will lose if the G-5 Governors eventually pitch their tents with Ahmed Bola Tibubu, the candidate of the All Progressives Congress.

Obasi stated this in Enugu on Friday while speaking with newsmen. According to him, Atiku Abubakar did not play his roles well by tacitly supporting the retention of Dr Iyorchia Ayu as the national chairman of the PDP.

He said Gov Nyesome Wike of Rivers State is also plotting to remain politically relevant after the 2023 elections.

Quoting him, “Wike is calculating to save his political future. Bola Tinubu of APC has more chances to defeat Atiku because the electoral war will be solely in the North.

“Wike is not a senatorial candidate. Other G-5 Governors have political lifelines after 2023. I am sure Wike would like a PDP governor in Rivers State in agreement for his support for APC at the national level so that he can get a good federal appointment afterwards.”

Moneke Onyeke, a lawyer, said Atiku and by extension PDP has no chances in the South East because of self-inflicted injuries. According to him, injustice done to the South East destroyed PDP’s stronghold of the region.

He said, “The people of South East already feel that they don’t belong to the PDP because of the refusal of the party to zone its presidential position to the region despite its zoning arrangements.

“The people of the region would have had voter apathy if not the emergence of Labour Party. Before now, PDP controlled South East. But the hierarchy of the party mismanaged to consolidate this feat. PDP is literally dying in the region, with the anger attendant to it. It started with the maltreatment meted to former Vice-President Dr Alex Ekwueme, and now climaxed by Atiku’s orchestrated emergence.”

A youth leader, Cyprain Okpe, attributed the increasing agitation for Biafra to the failure of the PDP to honour its internal principles.

Quoting him, “The failure of the PDP is the real reason our people are thinking about Biafra as the only alternative. We simply don’t know why the PDP chose to sideline our zone. If voting for Atiku is the only available option, we may choose not to vote.

“PDP is currently a floating party. No one can say this is PDP’s stronghold. In North West, Atiku will lose because of Kaduna governor Mallam el-Rufa’i. Then in the Northeast, Shettima, the APC VP candidate, remains a factor.

“Atiku allowing the G-5 Governors’ grievances to get to this level makes his chances bleak. PDP might die a natural death after its loss in 2023. In South East, for instance, it is only in Enugu and Abia that are still PDP-controlled in terms of the governors. And Labour might upturn PDP in South East with the look of things.”

THE WHISTLER reports that the G-5 Governors are being touted to be going to adopt Bola Tinubu in 2023.

Osmond Onu, an author, said, “If that happens, Atiku would have lost steam even before the end of the campaign.

“But a third force they would contend with is Peter Obi’s Labour Party. If pro-Peter Obi electorate don’t make a reverse in the dying minutes, the race to the Aso Rock may take a surprise direction.”