Former president Olusegun Obasanjo yesterday laughed off the emergence of his erstwhile deputy, Atiku Abubakar, as the consensus candidate of the North in next year’s presidential elections.
Mr. Atiku had, on Monday, been named the presidential aspirant of the region by the Northern Political Leaders’ Forum led by Adamu Ciroma.
Mr. Obasanjo, who was approached by reporters while leaving the council chambers of the presidential villa where he had, alongside three other former heads of state, attended the National Council of State meeting, was initially reluctant to respond to questions from journalists on his former deputy’s chances at the polls.
But unable to avoid the throng of persistent journalists for long, he comically cleared his nose with his inhaler for a long while before replying in pidgin English: “ah, I dey laugh o!”
Rather than complete his statement or speak further on the issue, however, Mr. Obasanjo turned into a preacher.
He said he had always prayed for happiness in life and now he is a happy man. He went ahead to pray for journalists who were eagerly waiting for him to make a full comment on the question they had asked him.
“My prayer for you is that you will always have happiness in life” he said, and he got a loud chorus of “amen”.
Katsina state governor, Ibrahim Shema, who was also approached for his reaction, merely told journalists that Mr. Atiku is just a presidential aspirant and that the north will speak for itself at the appropriate time.
When asked to comment on the emergence of a consensus candidate from the region ahead of the polls, former head of state, Muhammad Buhari replied that his party, the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), has nothing to do with the issue of zoning.
“Zoning is a purely PDP affair, but CPC’s constituency is the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Anybody, anywhere can contest for any office he think he can achieve,” Mr Buhari said.
Source:/234next.com
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