Atiku's former adviser says he risks being expelled from the PDP over his refusal to concede defeat

NIGERIA'S main opposition the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) may expel former vice president Alhaji Atiku Abubakar over his refusal to concede defeat in this year's presidential elections despite the Supreme Court declaring the result as valid.

On March 1, 2023, Nigeria's Independent National Electoral Commission (Inec) declared Bola Tinubu as the winner of the 2023 presidential election. According to Inec,  the former Lagos State governor secured 8,794,726 votes to defeat former vice president Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) who garnered 6,984,520 and Peter Obi, the former Anambra State governor of the Labour Party, who got 6,101,533 votes.

Unsatisfied with the outcome, five political parties, the PDP, Labour Party, Action Peoples Party, Allied Peoples Movement and the Action Alliance, filed separate petitions before the tribunal seeking to annul President Tinubu’s victory. However, on September 6, the Presidential Election Tribunal delivered its verdict backing the election of President Tinubu and then on October 26, the Supreme Court upheld that judgement.

However, despite the legal process reaching the end of the line, Alhaji Abubakar has refused to concede defeat, saying that he is going nowhere despite this aspect of the job being done. one of his former special advisers Umar Ardo, has suggested that the party might now expel his former boss if he fails to dump his presidential ambition.

Mr Ardo pointed out that the  PDP governors have already dumped Atiku and the PDP Governors Forum had promised to work with President Tinubu following his intervention in the political crisis in Rivers State. Governor Bala Mohammed of Bauchi State, the chairman of the PDP Governors Forum, praised President Tinubu for intervening in the crisis between the Federal Capital Territory minister Nyesom Wike and the Rivers State governor Sim Fubara.

Mr Ardo said: “Reading through Atiku’s last Monday’s press conference regarding the outcome of the Supreme Court’s judgment and his position towards President Bola Tinubu’s presidency vis-a-vis the following day’s communiqué of the PDP Governor’s Forum after its meeting at the Oyo State Governor’s Lodge, it’s obvious that the honeymoon between the party’s 2023 presidential candidate and its governors is now over. In a separate address, the chairman of the forum, Governor Bala Mohammed of Bauchi State, extolled the leadership qualities of President Tinubu and reiterated the PDP governors’ readiness to cooperate, support and work with the federal government that he leads.

“Nothing else can be more explicit in illustrating that the two are going in different and separate ways, more than this. With these opposing positions, it’s just a matter of time for the inevitable implosion to happen, as either Atiku steps down his presidential ambition, he leaves the PDP, or he be expelled from the party."