Atiku Abubakar, a former Vice President and presidential flag-bearer of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has been cautioned against choosing Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, as running mate, ahead of the 2023 presidential elections.
Wike, who placed second in the PDP presidential primary, is said to have emerged Atiku’s running mate, defeating another contender, Delta State Governor, Ifeanyi Okowa.
A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in Imo State, Mr Jones Onwusoanya, noted that “an Atiku- Wike presidency will be one of the most unwieldy, as there won’t be trust between the President and the Vice President. Even if a President Atiku might choose to bond with his Vice- President and get the job done, the original Turakin Kitchen cabinet will never be comfortable with a Wike Vice Presidency.
“Wike also knows that he does not have the temperament to be someone’s deputy. It will become worse if he feels that some people are trying to undermine his authority as the Vice-president. He will not keep quiet and he will not lie low and allow anyone take him for granted. These two people might use the first years of their presidency fighting some cold or open war, to the detriment of the emergency administrative interventions needed to rejig our country.
He called on the PDP presidential flagbearer to rather choose a running mate from the South East.
“There is nothing stopping Alhaji Atiku Abubakar from deciding that he wants a certain person as his running mate, and the Party hierarchy keys behind such a person or in a case where he feels that he owes an individual or a bloc in the Party some debt of gratitude, he could have requested that bloc or individual to pick a candidate for him from the Southeast” he stated