 Beirlie, 24 hours after the People's Democratic Party opened the sale of nomination and expression of interest form for the 2023 general elections, the Northeast Business Forum has purchased the form for former Vice President Atiku Abubaka. Speaking shortly after receiving the presidential form, Atiku said that in 2018 some young men contributed money and bought a nomination form for him and that he was emotional about it. He added that the challenges before Nigerians are enormous and that its unity is threatened. He stated that the economy and security were in bad state, adding that the challenges require the unity of everybody within the country. We're joining us to discuss this is Baba Shaladig, we're a political analyst and Dayo Kayodi, a political technocrat. Thank you gentlemen for joining us. My pleasure to meet you. Great. Thanks for having me. Great, great, great. Baba Shaladig, let me start with you before I go to Mr Kayodi. This is not the first time the Vice President has been vying for this office. He's run for this office many times and again he's throwing his hat into the ring in fact one of the first persons to pick up this form. Even though many others who have indicated interest within the party are still consulting, he seems to have put his foot forward. I remember the video that was trending when he was asked if he was certain he would be able to pick this ticket up. He did answer saying, when has he never gotten the ticket? Now this has raised a lot of concerns for people as to the internal democracy within the People's Democratic Party. But let's talk about the man, Attico Abubakar. Okay, thank you once again. Attico Abubakar actually has been contesting for this position since 1992 under the platform of Social Democratic Party. And he lost to Moshew Dabiola that time. In 2007 to this, he has been trying to contest for this position. Being the former number two man in Nigeria, he has the experience to contest for the position that is a qualified person. They have been in Nigeria, been in the position and he has the understanding of Nigerians. But the main question is, will he be able to deliver as a president? And for contesting for this position for the past 1993 up to this time that we are talking about 29 years ago. So by next there is going to be 30 years that Attico Abubakar has been running for this position. The question now is, has he always been reviewing his political manifesto? I did the same thing that he has been talking about, has he been able to upgrade himself? And another question that we have is looking at his age. By this time next year, by the time we will be contesting the election next year, Attico Abubakar will be about 76 years of age. If I'm not wrong, yeah, we should be about 76 years of age. So at 76, looking at the participants of the president who came in at 75 or 76 too, looking at the age and what is happening under him, we remember how this must pay more than one year outside Nigeria for medical attention. Because at that age there are a lot of things that happens to people who are over 70 years, medical attention. So with the man be able to deliver at 76, it's a question that I cannot answer. That depends on all Nigerians to determine if he's able to deliver at 76. Don't forget, he's going to spend four years. That means at the age of 80, the man will still be president. Let us look at all the people who have been president in different countries, not only in Nigeria, but in different countries that are over 70 years of age. How many of them have been able to perform very well? You have a Joe Biden in the US, don't you think he's doing a great job? Don't forget, the inflation in the US has escalated under Biden. And a lot of African Americans are actually complaining about him now, most especially in the aspect of the economy. And they are also blaming him also in respect of what is happening in Ukraine. So a lot of things, although the president has a final decision, but the people attached to the president also has a role to play. But as a president, the final decision lies with him. Whatever you do at that time is what happens to the country. So whether Biden is at the age of 90 years, the question is, has he been able to supersede the last president of the United States? What we're talking about, Tarticu, let me go to Daya Kayadi. Mr Kayadi, I heard you trying to interject, but then my question is, the former vice-president recently has been making a lot of statements. He did say that if the PDP does not pick up or does not win the elections come 2023, he and those who are elder statesmen in the party will retire. And that means the PDP might fail and wrap up in 2023. He also did say that he talks about his age, that he will retire in no time from politics come 2023, if, again, he's unable to pick that ticket. So he's making a lot of statements about his age, which a lot of people look at, but should we be considering his age? Again, I want to throw this in. The president that we have in power now, President Mohammed Buhari, has been, in fact, the only person who has always wanted to be president. Four times he tried to be president. And finally he got the chance. But then Nigerians are looking at themselves, wondering, why did we even vote for this man? Because if you were so eager to be president, you should have been able to give us something to hold onto. So if we have another person like President Buhari being so eager for office, should we, again, throw our weight behind that kind of person? Okay. Thank you for the array of questions you have asked me, and I will be picking them one after the other. But before that, let me first of all appreciate those young business guys from the North East that have collected or paid for that form is excellency article, if you understand, for this presidential election. Now, the first thing is, for them to have collected that form, it has made them to be part of each. That means to say, along the line, they can tell is excellency from a vice president of Nigeria article that look, these are the things we are looking for. These are one, two, three that are the aspirations and expectations of the people from you. That is to say that article is not there as only himself, but as representing the interests of the people that collected that form for him. That is one. So, it's talking about his health and age. Ever since, how many times have you heard about article going for medical tourism? He's not a president. He's not the president of the country. No, no, no, sir. I just want, no, no. He's not the president, so we're not following his health trip stories. But when you become president, when you have to go for a health trip, it's our business because we have to be informed. But he's not our president, so we are not interested in what he's doing with his health. And even if he were going on such, it would not be news to us, would it? Are you with me? I am. I know what I am saying. You allow me, I'm building a case. You allow me to learn, please. Okay. Now, we have taken a lot of assurance. Now, going for health tourism in Yoruba, they always say something. Oh, do you not remember? I mean, I don't remember. Oh, do you know more about in Italy? That is, it is in the money that you'll be able to identify which eyes will take you some money till night. All right? Now, if you're also talking about age, if you're talking about age, for goodness sake, today, today I met a man. It's like a father to us in my neighborhood. That man is 83 years old. He's a child, he's come from Lagos, Waititi. That is a man. So that means to say, the body metabolism of every individual, will bring another age made of particular side by side. He might not be able to be as agile as he is. Okay. I have seen younger guys that cannot go on 100 meter dash as far as I will go. I am even older than with about 15 years. That is also a sign. This time around, we are talking about, let us put people that are really prepared in political offices. Not all those that are going there to represent some people's interest that, okay, you, I want you to go and consult for this position. But it is somebody who has been consultative for this position because he knows that he has the similarity for their office. No, I am not trying to make a say for him. It sounds like you are campaigning for him already. Who have been watching all these people of the sideline. So far so good, so far so good, I strongly believe that article, it should get there. And then with people like us, we are going to put him on the stone according to the needs, aspirations of the people. Okay. After Nigeria will move forward. Why? Is it God's experience as a vice president, ever since there have been upgraded itself as a gas development project, development activities in the old world, this Nigeria. So what are you talking about? So I want to ask a question quickly so that I can go back to Babashala. The people like you would put him on his toes. Where are people like you now when we have a president that everybody seems to be complaining about? Why are people like you not putting President Bahari, the one who is still in power, on his toes? Yes. I will answer that now. Now, I am sure you will not be following me for the past years and some other people like budget and all that. There is no doubt about it that when this president was coming in, actually everybody wanted a change, but never defined that change. Never defined that change. And it is not difficult for people to not be telling him this, but we have defined the needs and aspirations of the people. The aggregate of our needs, we have defined it. And let's say I'm sure the people that voted for him will have made him to understand. And now he has also known that there is limit it can do outside the people. The moment he knows that, and we also know our audience, that our president is not a president of his own, but a president for the people. That way we always be monitoring him and then be telling him from time to time the needs and aspirations of the people. All right, because of time, let me go back to Baba Shala. Baba Shala, let's look at, again, I'm looking at what the PDP chiften is capable of bringing to the table. Now, just as I said, a lot of people expected Mr President to dam the consequences for the want of a better way to describe it and steer the ship of Nigeria to the promised land. Now, this has not necessarily been the case. Who's to say that Vice President Atikwa Bubaka, who's not been able to win for how many years, will be able to pull the kind of weight that he was even able to pull last in 2019. We saw how close the call was. But then the Nigeria of 2019 is not the Nigeria of 2022. Neither would it be the Nigeria of 2023. How certain is the PDP that this aspirant and, of course, we're not talking about him as if he's been given the flag already. But what can he really bring to the table that would make Nigerians look in his direction? Okay. If I could look at the antecedents of PDP, I would tell you that the PDP is not different from the HPC. However, things can change. Women's base can change. They can have a new set of people coming into the political party to re-engineer the party and come up with a good manifesto. Well, like I do tell people personally, I am no longer interested in the manifesto. I am not interested in what you have been able to do before or what people say about you. Now, in 2023, if PDP is actually interested in taking over that position through any of his candidates, it means that they need to be able to achieve the political party structure. They need to do a lot of things by, for example, we need to start seeing their hands. Now the political party is silent. Since 2019, hardly do we hear of PDP again because it's like the opposition party has gone to sleep. The opposition party is no longer interested in what is happening to Nigeria's. All they do now is not in a word. They make us to let people know that they are still existing. If they actually want people to give them the recognition, if they actually want people to vote for that political party, they need to do more. They need to cry when the people are crying. Look at the cost of wealth, the economy, the inflation is on the high side. Nobody in PDP is saying anything. So is that the political party that we actually want to support for 2023? I can't even answer that question. But it all depends on who they present as their own candidate. If they present a candidate, if they present a candidate that is better than the candidate of APC, maybe PDP will come back to position. But if not, I doubt. All that remains to be seen. But I want to say thank you. Thank you so much, gentlemen, for being part of the conversation. There's a lot that's going to play out in the next couple of months. Thank you very much. Thank you all for staying with us on the show tonight. As we wrap up for the week, we'll bring you our weekly round off of the show, and you can be part of the conversations that we've had all through the week. Don't forget, you can watch our show's replays on YouTube Live. Of course you can go to Plus TV Africa and Plus TV Africa Lifestyle. I'm Marianne Cohn. I will see you next week on Plus Politics. I don't think that we really have any crisis within the party. What we have within the party is the ambition of the two individuals that have decided to take the government postage because what is about the crisis now is how to deal with 2023 and 2024. And you all know that the government is not planning to run for a third time now. And the government is not planning to run for any election now. But those people who have the ambition to run for 2023 and 2024 have had to take the government postage and specializing in to resolve the... to reconcile or harmonize the structures of the party that what we are having is that three people have decided for 2023 and 2024 and try to factorize the government to what they call harmonization or integration. In respect of the APK proposed March 26th National Convention, there was already a notification letter in that regard reading to her, reading to her next by Bunil-led Traffical Committee of the party which of course meets the 21 days notice as required by the law. So if they are working with that direction then the party can see with the position of the law who are ahead with the national convention in this month of March. But however, of reason we heard about the plans of some leaders in the third party to replace the government of different states Bunil with that of the United States counterpart Aruba Carconi-Belu as the party's chaotic chamber. This is according to a separation of government where we fight on channel television. Remember I said the ball into the accords? Any attempt to go by this direction no matter how smart the party leadership is we hold the chance of APC to conduct this party national congress as planned in this month of March. We don't understand why the people of Shaibu and Roba Cycle who want us to change the go-posts at the middle of a march before they came to People's Democratic Party to sit for help. We have already conducted congresses at the world level at the local government level and at the state level. Officers have won a election and have been married. In fact, we had aspirants who were preparing for congress to be candidates of our party for a few weeks to our election before we had to speak to our people. Even some of them threatened to go to court. You followed the incident and, in fact, went by a similar prediction to the fact that he had been vindicated and that's why Congress on weekend had to apologise to Shomili because Shomili told him look, this man you are doing everything to help. You don't know him. After helping him you understand who he truly is. Today, it's Oshomili Andrews vindicator. Well, let me just say that to a very large extent Soludo has a personality that is different from an experience that is different from the experience of so many Governors in the country. Because of his unique background as former Governor for the Central Bank of Nigeria and so he's an economist he's the first class, you know, graduate from the University of Nigeria and Superman Economics. He is somebody that has also received back a lot of international awards from international institutions because of what, you know, of his achievements as Governor of Siberia. And so there is a lot of, a lot at stake in the Soludo, you know, Soludo as a Governor of Anandra State. And what is critical is that a lot more people if Soludo fails then it will be difficult for people from Nigeria to begin to make a case for people with the kind of pedigree that Soludo has.