It’s unbelievable anyone will consider Atiku, Saraki, Tambuwal for public office – Buhari

President Muhammadu Buhari got cheeky at the weekend, describing some of the aspirants for the office of the president on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as not trustworthy for the high office.

RELIABLESOURCENG.COM reports that even though the President was not specific in his criticism, it was, however, apparent the personalities his dagger targeted.

“Given that most important leaders of the opposition PDP first left the party before they returned to it, we might expect the media to ensure criticism of them is damning and absolute. It is incredulous that anyone would consider them trustworthy or acceptable candidates for any public office,” President Buhari fired as he congratulated the newly-elected members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) national executives.

Directly fitting into this category of “most important leaders of the opposition PDP” who left the party before returning to it are former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, former Senate President Bukola Saraki and Sokoto State governor, Aminu Tambuwal, all of who are aspiring to be nominated presidential candidate of the PDP toward the 2023 election.

Atiku had gone from PDP to CAN then to APC and back to PDP, in search of presidential ticket. In 2014, he joined the APC ahead of the 2015 presidential election and contested the presidential primaries, losing to Buhari. He returned to PDP again, ahead of the 2019 presidential election and became the candidate but lost to Buhari, the APC candidate.

READ: Atiku too old to be President – Bala Mohammed

Both Saraki and Tambuwal were part of the so-called “New PDP” that decamped from the PDP to form a coalition with the APC in the build-up to the 2015 presidential election. Their alliance with then nascent opposition APC contributed to a very large extent the victory of APC over PDP, in the 2015 general election, especially the presidency.

“What the Scriptures say less is of sinners who repent, change their tune, and then choose to re-sin in full public view by returning to their former ways,” Buhari preached in a statement issued on his behalf by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu.

The President said the spirit of unity exhibited by members of the APC at the convention has put the party on a firmer footing for victory in the 2023 general elections.

“The APC Convention hosted this weekend sets the scene for an APC victory in the presidential and general elections next year. It is a victory over naysayers who believed the party was divided but are now disappointed,” said the President.

He derided negative media publicity about the leadership crisis in APC leading up to the national convention while blaming the opposition PDP.

According to the President, “When their fake news of disunity was undone by the facts, some in the opposition could not help themselves but take to the newspapers and the airwaves to find another way to shore up their reputations.

“That some of the APC’s new leadership were once in the opposition was the new line to take to the media, somehow suggesting that those who have left one party should not hold positions in another. Yet, do the Scriptures not teach us of the virtue of sinners who repent and change their ways?”