On Thursday, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar explained why he did not run against the then-President Ousegun Obasanjo in the 2003 election.
He said moral principles prevented him from contesting in the Peoples Democratic Party with Mr. Obasanjo.
Mr. Atiku responded to remarks from one of the participants at his South-West consultative meeting in Ibadan.
There were speculations that the best chance for Atiku to run as a President emerged in 2003 as stakeholders in the PDP offered him the opportunity to contest against his former boss, President Olusegun Obasanjo. However, Mr. Atiku now says that he still found it difficult to accept the offer. Doing so, he said, would mean going against the position the PDP had earlier taken at a caucus meeting to retain the presidency in the South.
A statement by the Atiku’s media office read,
“Yes, I may nurse legitimate ambition, but I am not the kind of person who will want to climb the political ladder because an opportunity cheaply presents itself. You don’t have to stand in the way of commitment to party decisions because you stand the opportunity to benefit from an infraction.”
The statement also said a snap vote taken at the end of the South-West leg of the consultative meeting at the Golden Tulip Hotel showed that the All Progressives Congress as the preferred party with 60%, Peoples Democratic Movement followed with 29%, while support for the PDP was said to be 11%.