Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, says he declined the request to make former Lagos State Governor Bola Ahmed Tinubu his running mate in 2007.
Speaking with members of the Board of Trustees (BoT) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Abuja, Atiku said when he defected to Tinubu’s then Action Congress (AC) in 2006, part of the condition was to pick Tinubu as running mate.
By 2007, Atiku had fallen out with former President Olusegun Obasanjo over his plan to succeed his principal along with his opposition to Obasanjo’s third term agenda.
The disagreement later forced Atiku to defect to the AC from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Tinubu and some others had been instrumental to the formation of the AC.
He said he rejected the request and picked Senator Ben Obi from Anambra State because of his belief in the South East.
He said, “When I joined the Action Congress (AC), which my friend, Bola, set up, he gave me a set of conditions for giving me the ticket. He said that I should make him vice president. I said no, I am not going to make you vice president; instead I took Ben Obi.”
“When I got the ticket again to run under the PDP, I took another Obi (Peter Obi) coincidentally. So, there is absolutely no reason why they should say that there is a deliberate attempt to exclude the South East in political participation or power sharing.”
