By Chukwudi Nweje
Director General of the Amalgamated Atiku Support Groups (AASG), Oladimeji Fabiyi, at the weekend, said former vice president, Atiku Abubakar, is the most qualified candidate to succeed President Muhammadu Buhari in 2023.
He said the question that should be asked is who is afraid of Atiku?
“Everyone can see that Atiku is the issue in 2023; he is the phenomenon in 2023 that is why you see all the attacks from all angles, both within Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and All Progressives Congress, being directed at him.
“We have seen how these disparate elements have gone to the extent of mass printing anti-Atiku campaign items in Abuja which can never help them and their paymasters,” he said.
Fabiyi said the former vice president is not only eminently qualified to contest the office of the president, but is the kind of leader Nigeria needs.
“For the avoidance of doubt, Atiku is eminently qualified under the constitution of Nigeria to contest any office in the land. Above all, he is experienced, competent and has the capacity to preside over the affairs of our country at this critical point of its life. Atiku will present himself for consideration as president in the 2023 elections,” he said.
Fabiyi said this in reaction to an Atiku Support Group, which, at the weekend, withdrew its support for the former vice president on account of his age.
According to Fabiyi, the support group is an “amorphous” used by “disgruntled individuals to advance their narrow interests, and as the AASG director general, “I have no knowledge or record of the group (s).
“I would like to make it clear that the AASG which has the records of hundreds of credible and authenticated Atiku support groups, nationwide and in the diaspora, does not know of such amorphous groups. Let it be known that these so-called groups are, at best, interlopers.”