He’s running to lift Nigerians out of mess APC created, Atiku’s aide hits back at Tinubu

Paul Ibe, spokesperson of Atiku Abubakar, presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), says his principal is running to lift Nigerians out of the mess created by the All Progressives Congress (APC).

The development comes hours after Bola Tinubu, the standard bearer of the All Progressives Congress (APC), took a swipe at Atiku while speaking at a rally in Gbaramatu, Delta state.

Tinubu said the PDP candidate “is always on the run”.

In a phone interview with TheCable on Saturday, Ibe said the APC promised to bring change to Nigerians in 2015 but didn’t. He said Tinubu should focus on convincing Nigerians why they should vote for the APC.

“Let me tell you what Atiku Abubakar is not running to. He is not running to drug trafficking and money laundering; he is not running to forgery; he is not running to perjury; he is not running to a shady past,” Ibe said.

“He is running to make life much better for Nigerians. He is running to use his experience to lift Nigeria out of the mess of more than seven years that was created by a clueless government fostered by a man like Tinubu.

“He is running to use his experience as a former vice-president and in the private sector to change things around, to restructure the country, to unify the country, to give Nigerians an opportunity to recover.

“He should focus on telling Nigerians his vision for Nigeria; that’s what he needs to do. He needs to convince Nigerians why they should settle for a party that purportedly was going to bring change but brought a change that decimated the economy, that divided them more than ever before. He should focus on convincing Nigerians after all they have done.”

Atiku was the vice-president under the PDP administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo. In 2007, he defected to the defunct Action Congress where he contested the presidential election, which he lost. He returned to the PDP in 2009 and left again in 2013 to join the APC.

Atiku was instrumental to President Muhammadu Buhari’s victory in 2015. He left the APC in 2017 to rejoin the PDP and contest the 2019 presidential election.