Former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar has openly blamed President Goodluck Jonathan’s aides of putting off the meeting he was supposed to hold with the president over the ongoing crisis in the People’s Democratic Party, PDP.
Atiku, in a response to a Sunday Vanguard questionnaire through his media adviser, Garba Shehu, had alleged that Jonathan’s advisers sabotaged the meeting he was to hold with the president, an indication that they were not interested in resolving the ongoing crisis.
While explaining, he said that a day after the walk-out at the Eagle Square in Abuja, he received a message from the president through one of his aides that the President wanted a meeting and that Atiku should make himself available at home around 7:00pm of the next day.
He said, “Atiku cancelled all appointments and asked that the house be cleared for an important delegation from the President. At that time, it was unclear whether it was the President himself who was coming or hisrepresentatives”.
“He waited from 7:00pm until well after 9:00 but nobody showed up. The Turaki learnt later, to his dismay, that the leader of the delegation reported to the President that Atiku had made himself unavailable for the meeting”.
Shehu said Atiku had to put off all international engagements he had scheduled for the next day, but the President failed to show up.
He further disclosed that Atiku had not met Jonathan up to five times since he became President and had at every time wished to meet with the president if he is called upon.
“This is out of the respect for the office he occupies. From this, it is clear that around the President, there are people who prosper from this crisis and they don’t want it to end”, the media adviser said.”
Atiku, in the interview, noted that the decision among aggrieved leaders of the party to walk out during the convention of the PDP, “was the culmination of several attempts to call the attention of the party to how things were going in the wrong direction.”
According to him, “there had been several behind-the-scene efforts involving respected leaders of the party to correct certain wrongs in the PDP”.
He continued, “It appeared that the party was not ready to give consideration to all these complaints and it got to a point that some people felt that it was time to salvage the PDP, before it tarries far beyond redemption.
“I recall that not less than four different delegations were sent to me, three of which were led by former state governors and one by a serving governor, on why we need to act fast and salvage the PDP before the party collapses.
“At that point, I asked myself which was the right direction to go: to leave the party in the hands of Bamanga Tukur and watch the party I helped build to collapse, or join hands with like-minded people and rescue the PDP. I think at the end of the day, I took the right decision.
“What we did by the actions we took is to say that infractions to democracy and impunity will no longer be tolerated in the PDP.”
He pointed out that he was backing the protesting governors so they could salvage the situation in the party, “the effort to correct the wrongs in the PDP didn’t just start now. And that is why I will want to correct you on the appellation of ‘rebel governors.’
“Those of us who have come together to champion crusades to return the PDP to the dreams of its founding fathers are not leading a rebellion against the party. What we are doing is to further strengthen the PDP and reconnect it to the Nigerian people.
“I decided to join the governors in their protest after four delegations, one after the other, were sent to me. I did not give them any terms or preconditions because I believe in their sincerity of their purpose.” He had concluded.
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