Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, on Monday, apologised to Nigerians for his mistake in assisting President Muhammadu Buhari to emerge the nation’s ruler during the 2015 election.
He said he would correct all past mistakes if elected the President in 2019.
Atiku, who was in Lagos in continuation of his consultations with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) stakeholders, delegates and his supporters ahead of the party’s presidential primary also pledged that if elected, he would fulfill all his campaign promises within the four years of his administration, as he would not be seeking for second term.
The presidential aspirant under the PDP, who was received by thousands of supporters and party faithful maintained that President Buhari would not have won the 2015 election, but for his support.
Atiku maintained that he would turn the nation around and pull Nigerians out of the sorry situation they found themselves under the All Progressives Congress (APC) administration if elected.
He lamented that the country had never been so bad and disunited as it had been under President Buhari.
He said: “I want to appeal to Nigerians to give me another opportunity to correct the mistakes that I made in the past and that mistake was by supporting to bring President Buhari to power. This mistake has brought us to have the worst economy since 1999.
“We are still trying to recover from recession. Life has been made very impossible because of insecurity. I have not seen this country so unsecured. In the North, we find it difficult to go to farm for fear of being kidnapped or killed by herders and by the end of this farming season we may have food scarcity.
“Our unity in this nation had not been so divided. This government is insensitive to the plight of the people. I will use six months to restructure Nigeria.”
Atiku, who described the 2019 general elections as the most important in the history of the nation, said the future of Nigerian children would be determined by the election.
He added that if Nigerians should make the mistake of returning President Buhari to power in 2019, they would regret for the rest of their lives.
He urged the PDP delegates to support him with their votes for him to emerge the party’s candidate during the coming primaries, stressing that he had the capacity and structure to return the party to power.
Atiku stressed that it would be possible and easy to vote out President Buhari “because, from history, any time that Buhari competed against a Northern candidate, he had always lost the election.”
He added that without his support in 2019, he (Buhari) would not have won in Adamawa and Katsina.
He recalled that the South West used to be controlled by Alliance for Democracy (AD) until he asked for permission from his former boss, President Olusegun Obasanjo, to capture the region and he successfully got all the states in the region, except Lagos.
Making an allusion to the APC National Leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, Atiku stated that it was appalling that Lagos State would be controlled by only one man, hence he sought the support of Lagosians to remove the state from his hold and free them from servitude.
He warned that they would continue to live in servitude if the status quo did not change.
Atiku lamented that while the country had been suffering under the APC administration, the PDP was in tatters, as the ruling party caused a crack and disunity among them when as a former ruling party, it had enjoyed unity in the past.
He described the APC administration as an insensitive government as it had continued to pay attention to the people’s plight.
Atiku stressed that he would make things right if given the opportunity to lead the country.
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“If you continue in this state, it means you are going to suffer. Don’t let anybody deceive you. We must unite in capacity and strength to take the leadership from APC,” he added.
Otunba Gbenga Daniel, former governor of Ogun State and the Director General of Atiku Abubakar Campaign Organisation, in his brief remark, maintained that APC had already become divided.
He stressed: “A house divided against itself is bound to fall. I believe that the time has come. The only thing to do is to remain together.”
Former Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Elder Godsday Orubebe, who was part of Atiku’s entourage, stated: “I said that I am not to going to support any candidate until I see one. The only person I saw now is Atiku. Don’t allow anyone to rule, unless Atiku.”
The entourage, which was received by thousands of supporters at the PDP Secretariat in Lagos, venue of the meeting, comprised about 27 former PDP ministers and party bigwigs.
Atiku’s entry into the venue was greeted by loud shouts of his name by the crowd who arrived there as early an 7 a.m. and defied the early morning rain until his arrival at about 11. 40 a.m.
The meeting with the Lagos PDP stakeholders, was held in-doors for over two hours, even as the supporters, who adorned themselves in different colourful t-shirts and caps, danced to powerful musical renditions.
Traditional dance troupes were not left out, even as the supporters of several ethnic nationalities sang to the praises of Atiku, who they termed “the face of restructuring.”
Emerging from the closed-door meeting, Atiku, who was followed to the arena, where the supporters were patiently waiting for him, danced to the several tunes with the party stakeholders, and soon left the venue amid tight security.
Atiku will leave Lagos for Ogun State on Tuesday in continuation of his consultative tour of parts of the country before the party’s presidential primary.