APC cautions Atiku on utterances, 2019 ambition

There are strong indications that  former- Vi c e President, Atiku Abubakar had been cautioned by his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) over his recent utterances on the restructuring of the country and his vaunting 2019 presidential ambition....


Atiku had yesterday met with the APC National Chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun and other members of the National Working Committee (NWC). The meeting, which was closed door, held at the National Headquarters of the party in Abuja.

The former vice president was accompanied to the meeting by the Governor of Adamawa State, Senator Muhammad Umar Jubrila and his personal staff. Although the former Vice President and NWC members of the APC declined to speak on the meeting that lasted for over 20 minutes, an insider stated that it had to do with 2019 presidential election and Atiku’s comment on restructuring of Nigeria.

The source, who spoke on anonymity, stated that the party expressed concern over the story attributed to him on restructuring of Nigeria. According to the source, the leadership of the party told him that they and the presidency were not happy with his position on restructuring.

He was also told that such issue was what he would have suggested to the party or the presidency as an advice and not to speak it out in the public.Also, the party was said to have told him that as a presidential hopeful, anything he said would be taken seriously by Nigerians and opposition political parties.

Further, the source explained that the party expressed worries that since the former Vice President canvassed for the restructuring of Nigeria, many prominent Nigerians have cued into that and the presidency was not happy with this. Atiku had while speaking at a book launch in Abuja few weeks back, said “Nigeria is not working as well as it should. And part of the reason is the poor way we have structured our economy and governance especially since 1960.”

“The Federal Government is too big and too powerful relative to the federating units. That situation needs to change and calling for that change is patriotic.” “We must refrain from assuming that anyone calling for restructuring of our federation is working for the breakup of our country.

Absolutely not. And I reject that notion.” “An excessively powerful centre does not equate to national unity. Absolutely not. If anything, it has made our unity more fragile, our government more unstable and our country more unsafe. We must renegotiate our union in order to make it strong.” But contacted yesterday, the Atiku Office confirmed the meeting. An official in the Media office however said that he did not know the reason for the meeting at the APC secretariat.