Kayode Ajulo, lawyer and rights activist on Tuesday said the Yoruba people will not vote against Alh. Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2019 presidential election because Vice- President, Yemi Osinbajo is also in the race.
Atiku had picked Peter Obi, former Anambra state governor as his running mate while Osinbajo will be running again with President Muhammadu Buhari who is seeking reelection into office.
Ajulo, who said Yoruba don’t vote based on sentiments said they always look at issues before deciding who to pitch their tent with.
“I want to believe that this may be the last time Atiku will have the chance to contest election, and I want to believe that he is aware and have realised this. All his steps and choices will be well calculated. The choice he made concerning his running mate is something that everyone is proud of. I know Peter Obi as a great leader who is well respected”.
“The same thing with Professor Yemi Osinbajo, he has been able to function in the office with a posture that one is proud of. Yorubas are enlightened; we discuss politics of issues, not politics of sentiment. I don’t believe picking Peter Obi will now make Yoruba vote against Atiku”.
“If you really want answer to this, you can check what happened in 1999, and what happened in 2003, despite the fact that a son of the soil from Yorubaland, Olusegun Obasanjo contested twice, and being the sitting president; you will see that where he had the least votes happened to come from his kinsmen. We look at issues, which is one of the things of being formally enlightened. I am so proud of my race”.
“To say because Osinbajo is Yoruba, so we will all vote for him. No way! Yoruba won’t think that way” he said.
I argued that President Muhammadu Buhari has so lowered the bar of governance that it won’t take a lot for any person who succeeds him to impress Nigerians. So the best campaign against Buhari is to promise not to be like him, which is really sad because there is much more at stake in the task of governing Nigeria than just transcending Buhari’s incompetence and mediocrity.
Atiku Abubakar has started to excite voters by promising to not be like Buhari. On October 12, for instance, Atiku’s statement on Twitter that he won’t take six months to name his ministers resonated wildly with a lot of Nigerians.
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo on Thursday said he has reviewed his stance on not backing his former deputy for the presidency of Nigeria.
He said he believed Atiku has ‘re-discovered and re-positioned himself’ himself and is now good enough to enjoy his support in the next election.