Obaseki speaks on Atiku stepping down for Igbo presidency after one term

A media consultant for the Atiku/Okowa presidential campaign council, Don Pedro Obaseki, has spoken on the claim that his principal would step down for an Igbo presidency after just one term in office.

The leader of the technical committee for Atiku Abubakar’s presidential campaign, Raymond Dokpesi, had said that if elected, Atiku would do a single four-year term and pave the way for the southeast, an Igbo-dominated region, to produce the president in 2027.

But appearing on Arise Television’s The Morning Show on Thursday, Obaseki, a former governorship aspirant in Edo State, said Atiku should be allowed to win the election and finish his first tenure.

Asked whether Atiku, who would turn 79 at the end of his first tenure, would step down for an Igbo presidency, Obaseki said, said in Pidgin English, “We never start this one you dey talk of the one we never reach,” then added, “The man will win this one first, stabilise Nigeria.

“And with his mouth, he would say I’m stepping down for Igbo presidency. And in all his attempts at the presidency … his first one, he chose Ben Obi, an Igboman, inspite that people did not want it that way.

“And in his second time, he chose another Obi, Peter Obi as a running mate, and now this third time, he has chosen another candidate of Igbo extraction, Ifeanyi Okowa as his running mate.

“So when he stands in the public and say ‘I’m a stop-gap for the Igbo presidency’, can’t you realise …that this man has shown an open propensity for the Igbo people.”