Atiku returns to PDP in March?

Dapo Falade, Ado-Ekiti - 06.01.2008

THERE is no end in sight yet to the unfolding intrigues within the national political landscape as there are indications that the erstwhile number two political office holder, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, may eventually find his way back to the camp of the self-acclaimed biggest political party in Africa, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

If feelers from an inside source are anything to go by, Alhaji Abubakar may have gradually been warming his way back into the camp of the ruling party as Sunday Tribune reliably gathered that President Umaru Yar’Adua was favourably disposed to the possibility of Atiku becoming the next chairman, Board of Trustees (BOT) of the ruling party.

Before now, there have been wide speculations of a reunion between the former vice president and his enstranged former boss, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, with the possibility of the duo coming together under the same political umbrella.

The estrangement became an open issue following the open display of animosity between Obasanjo and Atiku over who succeeds the former in assuming the reins of the presidency shortly before the conduct of the last general elections across the country.

However, a close source within the Atiku caucus in the nation’s political circle confided in the Sunday Tribune that there is a high-powered meeting going on, both within and outside the country, with a view to considering the possibility of not only receiving the former vice president back into the camp of the ruling PDP, but also to give him a position of relevance within the party.

Disclosing that the possibility of the former governor of Lagos State, Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu, of joining the PDP cannot be totally ruled out, the source, who spoke with the Sunday Tribune in a telephone conversation and strictly on the condition of anonymity on Saturday, said that the president may have secretly endorsed the return of Atiku into the party fold with the assurance to make him the next chairman of the party’s BOT.

Linking Senator Tinubu with the said planned return of Atiku into the PDP, the source said; “You may not believe this, but former Governor Tinubu is the arrowhead of President Yar’Adua’s bid to gain political ascendancy, particularly in the North and Atiku is leading top members of the Action Congress (AC) back into the PDP camp.

“There has been series of high-powered meetings between the president and the former vice president and there is every possibility that he may return into the PDP on or before March 1. “The president was favourably disposed to the coming back of Atiku into the PDP as he had told him (Atiku) to formally announce his return into the party.

Yar’Adua urged Atiku to return into the PDP fold, being a foundation member who had held important and influential positions in the party.

“He was also assured of the possibility of becoming the next chairman of the party’s BOT if he was seen as been sincere with his intention to return into the PDP. This is part of the plans to once again make the party a formidable one.

“If Tinubu, who is the arrowhead and pillar of the AC can be romancing with the PDP, what then stops Atiku, a former vice president on the platform of the party from returning into the party fold? I can assure you that the man is returning into the PDP and this may happen on or before March 1.

“Then, I can also say that there will not be anything like the AC again because the return of Atiku into the PDP would have totally nailed its coffin as his teeming supporters and loyalists would naturally follow him into the PDP in their thousands,” the source disclosed to the Sunday Tribune.