Atiku should end his presidential ambition, says Presidency

…APC urges former VP to accept defeat

The Presidency and the All Progressives Congress (APC) have advised former Vice President and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate in the last election, Atiku Abubakar, to end his ambition to be president and stop polluting the political atmosphere.

The Presidency was reacting to Atiku’s press conference on Monday, condemning the Supreme Court’s judgement affirming the victory of President Bola Tinubu on the last presidential election in a press release issued on Monday by Mr. Bayo Onanuga, the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy.

The press release accused Atiku of being a demagogue and anarchist who sought to pull down and delegitimize all the institutions of state, all in a futile bid to achieve what he could not get via the ballot box.

Onanuga said, “Atiku tried very hard to perfect his act of misinformation by seeking to lay claim to faux morality and higher ideals when in actual fact his entire life is antithetical to any higher ideals.”

He also added that Atiku’s claim of working along with others to end military rule in Nigeria was false, as he was known to be in bed with the same junta who held democracy hostage and incarcerated his mentor, Major-General Shehu Musa Yar’Adua (rtd), till death.

“Atiku’s brand of politics is such that once an electoral process or election does not go his way or pave the way for his victory, democracy becomes dysfunctional and must therefore be imperiled. For him, democracy should either go his way or the highway,” he added.

He also mocked Atiku for losing the election because he went into a major election with a fragmented and tattered umbrella that could not hold together, while President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and his All Progressives Congress (APC) won because they offered a better vision for the country’s future and ran a well-coordinated campaign with their rank and file intact.

“There was no way Atiku and PDP could have won the election with the party platform under which he contested broken into four parts. If Atiku was not harboring a delusion of grandeur, we wonder how he could have envisaged any possible pathway to victory with Mr. Peter Obi’s Labour Party, Dr. Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso’s NNPP and PDP G-5 Governors who took away possible PDP votes, while the APC went into the election as a strong, viable and unified entity,” Onanuga added.

He further described Atiku as one of the worst examples of corruption in Africa, citing his involvement in a bribery scandal that sent congressman William Jefferson to jail after the FBI busted it.

The presidency advised Atiku to end his unprofitable bid and go away from any venture that will further pollute the political atmosphere and national harmony.

“We want to advise Atiku that after over three decades of elusive bid for the Presidency of Nigeria, he must now end his unprofitable bid and go away from any venture that will further pollute the political atmosphere and national harmony,” Onanuga said.

In a similar vein, the APC issued another press statement on Monday by its National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Felix Morka, where it also urged Atiku to accept defeat as a statesman.

The APC statement said that Atiku staged a press conference at which he delivered a long, windy, incoherent and preposterous speech unbefitting of a former Vice President.

The APC statement said that Atiku regurgitated his illusory claim that President Tinubu did not win the February 25, 2023 presidential election, but failed to state that he won the election himself.

The APC said that it was delusional for Atiku and his degenerate PDP to have expected the courts to rely on their bogus, flimsy, unverifiable, uncorroborated, illogical and hearsay evidence to upturn an election that was conducted in substantial compliance with the Constitution and electoral laws of the land.

Morka said, “Thankfully, it does not lie in Atiku’s mouth to declare what constitutes ‘incontrovertible evidence’. That is the constitutional duty of the courts and which they have discharged honorably and creditably.”

The ruling party added that Atiku was pained and utterly distraught by his serial election loss, but he should not deny and disrespect the collective will of Nigerians, disparage the judiciary, incite rage and call our democratic institutions into question.

“Why is it so hard for Atiku to accept the popular choice of the electorate and the valid decisions of the courts? How is it that a man of his stature can be so befuddled to this disturbing level of election and judicial denialism? Would Atiku vilify the judiciary as he is doing had he won the election and upheld by the courts as winner?”

“Rather than vindicate you, history will not forget your unwillingness to put the country first and above your personal political ambition,” the APC added.