The United Kingdom chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has said that the choice of Mr Peter Obi, former Anambra Governor as running mate to Atiku Abubakar, the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate for 2019 presidential election, will take the party nowhere.
Mr Ade Omole, leader of the chapter told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Friday in Abuja, that the choice of the former Anambra governor would not in anyway guarantee votes for the PDP in the South-east.
This, he said was especially so because Obi failed as a governor and could not deliver democracy dividends to the people of the state.
“The paddy paddy anointing of Mr Peter Obi to the gasping ticket of Atiku Abubakar as running mate, confirms our earlier assertion that the PDP presidential campaign is dead on arrival.
“As you are aware, Peter Obi failed woefully in the last Anambra gubernatorial election by failing to deliver the state to his ailing party, a state he mismanaged for eight years.
“Peter Obi was rejected by his people, his ward, his state and come 2019, both the PDP presidential candidate and his running mate will be rejected nationally by Nigerians,”Omole said.
He described the combination of Obi and Atiku as a classic case of corruption working hand in glove with mismanagement, stressing that surely, the tag could only take Nigeria back to Egypt or even a worse situation.
” I wish both candidates best of luck as they embark on the journey to failure,”Omole said.
NAN reports that the former Anambra Governor emerged the preferred choice of both the party and Atiku after series of consultations by the party’s stakeholders.
Atiku who was a former Vice President announced Obi as his running mate for the presidential election slated for February 2019 in a statement issued by his campaign office.
Mr Gbenga Daniel, also a former Governor of Ogun and the Director-General Atiku Champaign Organisation, said in the statement that Obi was the ultimate choice of the PDP and its stakeholders for the election.
Born on July, 19 1961, Obi attended Christ the King College, Onitsha and later went to the University of Nigeria, Nsukka where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy.
He is also a graduate of several international and national institutions such as the Lagos Business School, Harvard Business School, London School of Economics, Columbia Business School, Institute of Management, Switzerland, Kellogg Graduate School, Oxford University and Cambridge University.
In public service, Obi was Member, Presidential Economic Management Team, Vice-Chairman, Nigeria Governors’ Forum, and Chairman, South-East Governors’ Forum.
He was the Chairman, Board of Security and Exchange Commission (SEC), former Chairman, Fidelity Bank PLC, former Chairman, Guardian Express Mortgage Bank,and former Chairman, Future Views Securities.
He was also former Chairman, Paymaster Nigeria, former Chairman, Next International Nigeria, former Director, Guardian Express Bank PLC, former Director, Chams Nigeria PLC, former Director, Emerging Capital and former Director, Card Centre PLC.
The former Anambra Governor was a member of the British Institute of Directors (IOD), Nigerian Chartered Institute of Bankers and Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG).