You cited wrong leaders, Presidency faults Obi’s one-term vow

The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has alleged that former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and former Kaduna State governor, Nasir el-Rufai, constitute a threat to the unity, peace and progress of the country.

This was as the Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, faulted Peter Obi’s recent one-term pledge, accusing the 2023 Labour Party (LP) presidential candidate of misrepresenting historical facts in his attempt to justify it.

APC’s National Publicity Secretary, Felix Morka, in a statement yesterday, claimed that the duo were bent on hijacking the opposition African Democratic Congress (ADC) as part of a grand design to alter the rotation of power principle in the country.

APC claimed that it was Atiku’s selfish and obdurate refusal to respect the rotation principle during the 2023 Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential primary election that directly resulted in PDP’s “virtual cremation”.

He stated: “It is now clear to all Nigerians that el-Rufai and his cohorts in ADC are on a mission to upend the presidential rotational principle designed to promote national unity and cohesion in the country through the imposition of Atiku as presidential candidate of ADC in the middle of a southern presidency turn.”

The ruling party was reacting to el-Rufai’s attack of Tinubu’s administration, at a meeting in Sokoto on Saturday, describing it as incompetent, clannish and undeserving of a second term.

It noted el-Rufai’s posture as yet another outburst of a waspish politician, adding that Nigeria was witnessing an era of visionary and transformational leadership under Tinubu.

Insisting that the administration’s Renewed Hope Agenda fundamentally repositioned the country for steady growth and progress, APC expressed confidence that Nigerians would sustain their support for Tinubu’s mandate come 2027.

Obi, in a statement on Sunday, reiterated his commitment to serve only four years if elected President in 2027, citing the leadership examples of Abraham Lincoln, John F. Kennedy and Nelson Mandela as justification for his pledge.

But Onanuga, in a piece entitled ‘Peter Obi and His Wrong Examples’, said Obi failed both history and context in drawing inspiration from the three late leaders.

“Peter Obi, the aspiring presidential candidate of the fledgling opposition party, must have flunked history in school,” Onanuga stated. “In justifying his so-called ‘sacrosanct’ pledge to serve only one term of four years, he cited Abraham Lincoln, JFK and Nelson Mandela as leaders he wanted to emulate.

“A simple fact-check by a politician, who always challenges his gullible and unthinking mob to verify his statements, would have revealed that he quoted the wrong examples,” Onanuga added.

He clarified that Lincoln had already won re-election and was in his second term when he was assassinated in 1865, while JFK was killed before completing his first term.

On Madiba, he said: “Mandela served as the first President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999. He declined a run for a second term on account of his age… Mandela’s example might be more appropriately recommended to Obi’s rival for the opposition ticket, who will turn 81 by 2027.”