Ose Anenih, a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chieftain, has declared that Atiku Abubakar was the only statesman on the ballot in the 2023 presidential election.
Anenih, the son of a former minister of works, the Late Tony Anenih, was a member of Atiku Abubakar’s presidential campaign council during the election.
He stated that Atiku’s ideas were better than his co-contestants which include President Bola Tinubu, Labour Party’s Peter Obi, Rabiu Kwankwaso of the New Nigeria Peoples Party and Adewole Adebayo of the Social Democratic Party.
Anenih was reacting to a statement on Twitter by a political analyst in Malaysia named Faizal Hamssin.
Hamssin had written:
”A politician makes a decision based on political expediency to win the next election at all costs.
”A statesman makes a decision based on what is right, what will benefit the people in the long run, and what is necessary – even when making that decision may make them unpopular.”
Reacting, Anenih noted that Atiku was the perfect definition of a stateman during the election due to his stance on national issues.
According to him, Atiku spoke on issues other presidential candidates avoided.
He also stated that Atiku was very clear on policy directions and was not afraid to address controversial issues, even though they were not politically expedient for a politician seeking the office of the president.
His words:
”I remember Atiku going to the north and telling them Nigeria must be restructured; I remember him saying we must privatize NNPC; create state police; devolve power to states and LGAs; give states control of their resources; ban open grazing; all controversial issues he could have ignored or replaced with populist soundbites.
”He was the only statesman on the ballot.”
