For former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar and consensus candidate of the Northern Political Leaders Forum (NPLF) in the forthcoming Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential primary, there may be a new hurdle ahead of the poll.


Akwa Ibom State Governor Godswill Akpabio said Atiku is expected to face a screening panel where he is to defend his membership of the party.


Atiku had quit PDP and joined Action Congress (AC) to contest the 2007 presidential election following his face-off with former President Olusegun Obasanjo.


But he returned to the party last year and the issue of a waiver for him to contest for the presidency within the party was contentious initially. However, the party later granted him a waiver.
Speaking with journalists at the weekend in Abuja, Akpabio said the party was yet to verify if due process was followed in granting him a waiver.


Atiku, in a response by his campaign organization, however, said he believed that the governor is lettered enough to know that his waiver satisfied all the membership conditions and that he could not have said what he was quoted to have said.


The governor further said the picture which was shown when he (Atiku) was declared as the consensus candidate of “some friends” was of the former vice-president with a broom and this he said puts a question mark to the whole process.
He, however, said the party’s screening committee would sort that out when the time comes.


Akpabio said: “If you notice immediately after the announcement of the consensus candidate, the picture that was shown was a picture with a broom, sweeping and then showing previous campaigns of AC presidential candidate. For us we were shocked, if we were jubilating with broom and picture of broom that shows clearly that we are talking about two different parties, one AC and one PDP.


“Many of us are still amazed as we are still not sure that actually the due process of getting waiver has been granted so we are still waiting to see the outcome of the screening committee result when they will eventually face the screening committee.”
Akpabio said the former vice-president poses no threat to the aspiration of President Goodluck Jonathan in the coming PDP presidential primary.


He said Atiku was yet to find his feet in the party whereas the president and his deputy had been grounded in the party.
“As for today, I have not seen much and I believe the entire PDP governors and faithful in the party will return President Jonathan/Sambo as PDP consensus candidate for 2011 presidential election,” he said.
He also noted that the former vice-president is a candidate of panel of friends, while the Goodluck/Sambo ticket is a national ticket.


“The other one was the consensus candidate of panel of good friends. But we are looking at President Goodluck/Sambo as possible consensus candidates of PDP and will emerge from the body of governors and go down the lines through the people in PDP and this will be a PDP affair,”he said.
He said the Goodluck/Sambo camp is excited “about the outcome of the consensus arrangement,” adding that the camp is very confident.


“The outcome of the consensus has brightened the chances of Goodluck/Sambo success in 2011. The outcome of the consensus was a tonic. I do know that in politics you cannot underrate anybody but one thing is certain that President Goodluck Jonathan and Namadi Sambo are both grounded in PDP and the consensus candidate just thrown up will clearly find it difficult to find his feet,” he said.


The governor also added that in all the processes what “is paramount is peace for Nigeria and for us to unite the country.”
“We still see the candidature of President Jonathan/Sambo as the unity ticket that will bring unity to the whole country and we really give a sense of belonging to all sections of the country because it will lead to total integration of the country. Yes, you have a South-south man coming out for president and been accepted by all and sundry and then you have somebody from the core North also as his vice. Both of them are former governors with experience of what the grassroots really wanted in Nigeria,” he added.
The governor said there was a need to downplay the issue of zoning and face the reality on ground, which is that circumstance had thrown up President Jonathan as the president of the country.


Meanwhile, President Jonathan has taken a swipe at Atiku over his statement on the loss of Osun State to the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), which he said smacked of disloyalty to the party.
Atiku was quoted as saying that he was having the last laugh while alleging that the loss of Osun State was due to former President Obasanjo’s high handedness in the party, adding “We too dey laugh o”.


President Jonathan in a Facebook posting wondered why anyone who is loyal to the party would under any circumstance make inflammatory statements which portrays him as celebrating the loss of the party.
He, however, did not mention Atiku’s name in the posting but all the references were clear innuendos to the exchange between Atiku and Obasanjo within the last one week.


When asked by newsmen his reaction to Atiku’s emergence, Obasanjo had replied, “I dey laugh o”.
Jonathan said it was hard to believe that Atiku laughed at the loss of the state to a rival party and explained that he only congratulated Rauf Aregbesola of ACN based on his disposition to the rule of law.


“I have congratulated the new Governor of Osun State, Engineer Rauf Aregbesola, on his victory at the Appeal Court not because I am glad my party lost but because I believe firmly and fundamentally in the rule of law. As a President, I have a covenant with my creator and Nigerians to uphold the rule of law and insist that the right thing be done at all times.”

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