By Pascal Oparada
Atiku Abubakar, the presidential flagbearer of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Friday picked the former governor of Anambra State, Mr. Peter Obi as his running mate in the 2019 presidential elections.
Speculations have been rife in many quarters that the former vice president who clinched the opposition party’s presidential ticket last Saturday at the party’s national convention in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, would pick someone from the South East and the choice was narrowed down to Obi who was the governor of Anambra State from 2005-2013.
The choice of Obi is even more important for Atiku who hopes to sway voters from that region in his favour. Obi is known to be prudent and has managerial capacity.
Several options have been suggested in the public domain, with the candidate being widely expected to choose from either the Igbo-dominated Southeast or a Yoruba choice in the Southwest part of the country.
In 1979 late Dr. Alex Ekwueme became a vice president to Alhaji Shehu Shagari and Chuba Okadigbo was President Muhammadu Buhari’s running mate in 2003.
Speculations became rife that Obi may have become Atiku’s choice when the duo went into a closed-door meeting in Abuja on Friday.
Obi arrived at Atiku’s residence in the Asokoro neighborhood around 3:00 p.m., and both have been holding undisclosed talks.
