An All Progressives Congress (APC) chieftain, Osita Okechukwu, has urged the African Democratic Congress (ADC) presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar to consider the interest of the nation and step down from the presidential race.

Naija News reports that Okechukwu made the appeal during an interview on Arise Television’s Prime Time on Monday.

According to him, Atiku’s emergence as the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate in 2022, despite calls for the party to zone its ticket to the South, triggered a crisis that continues to affect the party.

He said, “I’m talking in the interest of our country. His Excellency Atiku Abubakar, a man I respect a lot. He was very close to some of my big brothers, the late Dubem Onyia and late Chuba Okadigbo. I’ve great respect for him.

“And what I’m appealing to him is that he should consider the interest of Nigerian State, our fledging democracy

“About three years ago he (Atiku) did the same thing by breaching the rotation convention, and the collateral damage is heavy.

“Heavy in the sense that, luckily for the Nigerian state, democracy remained, the country remained, but the destabilisation of the PDP had its own collateral damages that it cannot be quantified.

“In fact, the damages got to his backyard because if in 2022 he had acted a statesmanship, which I’m pleading with him, it’s not too late to become a statesman in a country like ours.

“If he had said that in 2014 I walked away from the PDP, telling them that it’s the turn of the north, and joined the APC, and ran.

“I think it was when we were less than one year old when they joined us in protest, and he contested for presidency with us, and came third. He came third, and he went back to PDP.

“And in 2018 presidential primaries of the PDP. No southern aspirant participated.”

Okechukwu argued that Atiku’s decision to contest the PDP ticket in 2022 contributed significantly to the party’s internal crisis and weakened its position as the main opposition.

He added that Atiku’s criticism of President Bola Tinubu over alleged moves toward a one-party state ignored the role the PDP’s internal decisions played in its current challenges.

“So what am I saying? I’m saying that when he breached it in 2022 the consequences in the PDP has made…

“Most of the time, I will see him talking about one-party state, accusing President Tinubu of generating one-party state. He forgot, or deliberately, maybe deliberately, he grossed it over and swept it under the carpet that if he had allowed a Southerner to contest against President Tinubu, even if the PDP had lost, PDP could have remained strong,” he said.