Tajudeen Yusuf, a former member of the House of Representatives, has shared his perspective on why Peter Obi decided to leave the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) before the 2023 presidential election. According to a video posted by Channels Television on YouTube, Yusuf believes that the commonly accepted explanation for Obi’s departure is wrong and that the real reason is quite different from what most people think.
Many people have believed that Peter Obi left the PDP because of Nyesom Wike’s political ambitions and the conflicts this created within the party. However, Yusuf, who supports Wike’s faction within the PDP, argues that this explanation is not accurate. Instead, he claims that Obi left because former Vice President Atiku Abubakar could not promise him the vice-presidential position on the party’s ticket.
Yusuf explained that the widely accepted story about Wike’s ambitions causing Obi’s exit from the party is simply not true. He believes that people have misunderstood what really happened during the internal party discussions leading up to the 2023 presidential primaries.
According to Yusuf, the real problem was that during the party’s preparation for the presidential election, Obi was not given any assurance that he would be chosen as Atiku’s running mate if Atiku won the party’s presidential primary. This lack of guarantee about the vice-presidential slot was what ultimately drove Obi to make the decision to leave the PDP and eventually join the Labour Party.
Yusuf emphasized that Obi’s departure had nothing to do with personal rivalries between different party leaders or the various factional disputes that have troubled the PDP in recent years. Instead, it was purely about the practical political arrangements surrounding the vice-presidential candidacy and Atiku’s inability to provide the assurances that Obi was seeking.
The former lawmaker believes that this failure to properly manage the relationship with Obi had serious consequences for the PDP’s chances in the 2023 presidential election. He argued that if Atiku had handled the situation differently and given Obi the guarantees he was looking for, the outcome of the election might have been completely different.
Yusuf expressed regret about how the situation unfolded, suggesting that the PDP missed a major opportunity for electoral success. He believes that an Atiku-Obi ticket would have been much stronger and could have won the presidency.
Looking ahead to the 2027 elections, Yusuf discussed the importance of zoning within the PDP and urged the party to zone its presidential ticket to the South. He believes this strategy could help attract important political figures like Obi back to the party and strengthen the PDP’s chances in future elections.
“I’ve heard a lot of narrative — Wike’s ambition was the reason why Obi left the PDP. Obi left because Atiku could not guarantee his VP-ship,” Yusuf stated.
He added: “If Atiku had not bungled the Obi relationship, if Obi had remained in PDP, and he had picked Obi as vice president, he would have won the election. Obi represented the southern agitations. Nigerians were looking for something different.”
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