27th October, 2022
Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP flies out of Nigeria to the United States on Tuesday evening as part of his bid to realise his ambition of taking over from President Muhammmadu Buhari in 2023.
According to reports, while in the US, Atiku and his team will engage in lobby of top American officials, including influential members of Congress to solicit support for his presidential bid.
Part of the former Vice President’s itinerary in the US is a meeting with senior US State Department officials held Wednesday,according to Western Post.
US lobbyists working for the former Nigeria’s Vice President secured appointments for him to meet with top members of US Congress and Biden’s administration officials.
Atiku had also in 2019 traveled to the US in the heat of his campaign for the Nigerian presidency.
However, the trip, the trip to the US, the first since Atiku left power in 2007, was ‘arranged’ to partly dispel allegations that Atiku could not enter America following his indictment in a $40 million corruption and money laundering trial involving him, a former US Senator Williams Jefferson and his 4th wife, Jennifer Douglas.
Douglas is a US citizen.
The trip was part of the desperate bid by the 76-year-old former vice president to realise his ambition of governing the country.
It is believed that becoming Nigeria’s president requires the support of powerful western nations within the European Union especially United Kingdom and America.
“Atiku is convinced he will never achieve his ambition of becoming the President of Nigeria without the support of external collaborators in United States and Britain especially. His lobbyists secured important meetings for him with State Department officials and Congress members.
It was learnt that at the meetings, Atiku will try to convince his hosts that his presidency will protect the businesses and their other interests in Nigeria and West Africa.
Atiku is scheduled to return to after his meetings with US officials which will last till Friday before he return to Nigeria,” said the source.
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