Former President Olusegun Obasanjo revealed that the partnership between former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, and late Dr. Alex Ekwueme during the 2003 primary election of the Peoples’ Democratic Party for the presidential bid hit was botched after Ekwueme was subjected to defeat at the election.
Obasanjo disclosed this at the public presentation entitled ‘Amazing Grace’, a biography of Chief Adebayo Alao-Akala, the former Oyo State Governor, yesterday, in Ibadan.
During the event, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, who was the Chairman of the occasion, made this revelation while correcting an aspect of the book where the author recounted that the former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, stepped down before the primary election.
Chief Obasanjo said, ‘Again, Atiku did not back down as you claimed until Alex Ekwueme was defeated at the PDP primaries in 2003, as Atiku’s agreement with Ekwueme was to be Ekwueme’s running mate and Ekwueme, as President, spending three years and resigning for Atiku to complete the fourth year and then for Atiku to contest election in his own right in 2007.’ He also added that ‘It was after the result of the primary that Atiku backed down. If you put it that way, it was when there was no other choice.’
Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, further, accused Alao-Akala of negligence, in the failure of the South-West to present the Speaker of the House of Representatives, which Aminu Tambuwal, the incumbent Governor of Sokoto state, later won.
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He recounted that Ajibola Muraina was initially proposed by Alao-Akala, which he (Obasanjo) and others endorsed. Later on, Alao-Akala backed down and began to lobby for Mulikat Akande, who was eventually defeated by Aminu Tambuwal.
Photo Credit: DailyPost