2019: Why I’m Confident Lamido Will Step Down For Me – Atiku

With high hope, Atiku Abubakar on Monday said one of his contenders for the presidential ticket of Peoples Democratic Party, Sule Lamido will drop his ambition for him to emerge the party’s flagbearer in the 2019 general election.

He made this statement at the PDP headquarters in Dutse, Jigawa State after meeting party leaders in the course of his campaign tour.

He regarded the ex-Jigawa governor as his younger brother who would be honourably learn from what has happened in the history of Nigeria’s politics between Late president Umaru Musa Yaradua and his elder brother, Shehu, who also passed on long ago.

Mr. Atiku recalled that the late Musa was eventually persuaded to sacrifice his governorship ambition so as not to jeopardise the chances of his elder brother’s in his own presidential bid.

“But with the intervention of elders in the state, the junior brother Umar Musa
stepped down for another aspirant so that the politics will not be a
family affair, leaving Shehu Musa to contest for president while someone
from another family vied
for governor,” Mr Abubakar said.

Mr Abubakar told the gathering that
his mother was from Jigawar Sarki, a
village in Dutse Local Government
Area of Jigawa State before her
family migrated to Adamawa State
where Mr Abubakar was born.

His narrative was interrupted by a
thunderous laughter and applause
from the party leaders as he drove
home his point that “Sule Lamido is
my junior brother and will learn
from what transpired between Shehu
Musa and Umaru Musa.”

In his remark, the state PDP chairman, Salisu Mahmuda, called on the aspirants to be united to prevent what he called an automatic second coming of the All Progressives Congress (APC) administration in the country.

Whomever emerges the PDP candidate is expected to be the main challenger to President Muhammadu Buhari in next year’s presidential election.

At the time of filing this report, Mr.
Abubakar was holding a closed door
meeting with Mr Lamido at his
country home, Bamaina in Birnin
Kudu Local Government Area, about
50-kilometre drive from Dutse, the
state capital.