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Ben Obi had barely been formally named the
campaign chief for former Vice President Atiku Abubakar before he aimed
a few salvos in the direction of the man everyone loves to hate, Mr.
Abubakar’s estranged former boss, Olusegun Obasanjo.
Mr. Obasanjo, who
was president when Mr. Abubakar served unhappily as his deputy, is
little more than a jester, Mr. Obi said Monday at a news conference in
Abuja, in response to Mr. Obasanjo’s stated reaction to news that his
former deputy had emerged as the “consensus” candidate for the North.

Mr Obasanjo had
last Thursday laughed off the selection of Mr. Abubakar while talking
to reporters in Abuja. Asked to respond to the news, the former
president had simply said, in pidgin, “I dey laugh.” “We look at him
and said the man is always comical with his comments,” Mr Obi said. “We
don’t need to engage him, we don’t intend to engage him in matters of
that nature.” Mr Obi, a former senator, also dismissed suggestions that
the former vice president will face challenges to his membership in the
PDP, as indicated at the weekend by the governor of Akwa Ibom State,
Godswill Akpabio.
He described Mr
Akpabio as a busybody who should not be taken seriously since he is
neither the chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) nor its
spokesman.
“I am happy you
refer to him (Akpabio) as Akwa Ibom State governor and not the chairman
of the PDP. He does not double as the spokesman of the PDP. That is a
busybody,” Mr Obi said.
Mr Obi will run an
Atiku campaign that has just absorbed the campaign organisations of his
three other rivals, all from the political North, who have agreed to
step down for him.

These were former military strongman Ibrahim
Babangida, the former national security adviser Aliyu Mohammed Gusau,
and the governor of Kwara State, Bukola Saraki.
Mr. Obi said the
Atiku campaign also has appointed several officials from the erswhile
rival campaigns. These include Chris Mammah, who will serve as
principal spokesman for the campaignand Bashir Yusuf Ibrahim, who will
run campaign operations.