Atiku narrates how he rejected Tinubu’s offer to be his running mate in 2007

Former Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar has narrated how he rejected an offer by the National Leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu to be his running mate in 2007. 

Atiku contested for president after serving as a VP to the former president, Olusegun Obasanjo between 1999 and 2007 on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

After he fell out with Obasanjo, Atiku defected to the Action Congress, a party founded by Tinubu during the build-up to the 2007 presidential election. 

He thereafter became the party’s presidential candidate in the election.

Speaking on the zoning of the 2023 presidency, Atiku told the Board of Trustees members of the PDP on Tuesday, March 15, 2022, that when he emerged as the presidential candidate of the AC, Tinubu wanted to be his running mate but he rejected the offer.

Atiku said there is no reason to believe that the southeast is deliberately excluded from power-sharing in the country.

He said when he rejected Tinubu, he picked Senator Ben Obi.

He said, “In the party, we invented and formulated this zoning policy simply because we wanted every part of this country to have a sense of belonging and I personally have paid my dues on the issue of zoning.

“Many of you were members of our government when all the PDP governors came in 2003 and said I should run and I said no. We have agreed that power should remain in the South-West, Why should I?

“Some of those governors that supported me, some of them went to jail, some of them were kicked out of their offices, we made sure that we kept the policy. Therefore, you cannot come and try to imply that the PDP has not been following the zoning policy.”

“The many years of PDP government eight years and six years all of them were from the South. So, we should not be stampeded by the opposition party. They have a moral obligation which is inescapable.

“Some say the South-East have not been given the chance. When I joined the Action Congress (AC) which my friend Bola (Tinubu) set up, he gave me a set of conditions for giving me the ticket, one of which was that I should make him the Vice President. I said no, ‘I’m not going to make you Vice President,’ instead, I took Senator Ben Obi.”

Atiku added that when he got the ticket again in 2019 to run, he took another Obi coincidentally.