The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Mr. Atiku Abubakar, stirred the hornet’s nest at the weekend when he stated why his fellow northerners should elect him as president in 2023 instead of someone of Yoruba or Igbo extraction.
Speaking while responding to a question posed to him by the spokesman of the Northern Elders Forum (NEF), Mr. Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, during an interactive session with Arewa Joint Committee held on Saturday in Kaduna State, Atiku described himself as a “pan-Nigerian” of northern extraction who, according to him, has traversed the entire country and built bridges in the process.
When he was asked why the northerners should vote for him, he said: “What the average northerner needs is somebody who’s from the north and also understands that part of the country and has been able to build bridges across the country. This is what the northerner needs; it doesn’t need a Yoruba or Igbo candidate, I stand before you as a pan-Nigerian of northern origin.”
With his knowledge of Nigeria, Atiku said if he becomes president in 2023, he would form a government of national unity.
“I have traversed the whole of this country, I know the whole of the country, I have built bridges across the country.”
Atiku’s vague incitement of the northern voters against the Yoruba and Igbo candidates has elicited condemnation from individuals and interest groups.
In its reaction, the Ohanaeze Ndigbo, said in a statement by its general secretary, Mr. Okechukwu Isiguzoro, said the PDP presidential candidate had, with that hate comment, finished what was ever left for the party.
“We are worried that at such a time Nigeria is seeking for a unifier, Atiku is further pushing the country into disintegration; he has shown that he lacks the capacity to lead and unite this country.
“His ambition has already destroyed the PDP and pushed it from number one to third if not fourth force. Now, he wants to bring the same division into the affairs of the country. We ask Nigerians to say no by rejecting him stoutly at the polls,” Ohanaeze said.
The group added that added that the G-5 governors, led by the governor of Rivers State, Mr. Nyesom Wike, have been proved to be the true lovers of the country.
Also reacting, the presidential campaign council of the All Progressives Congress (APC) described Atiku’s statement as “insulting, irresponsible and despicable.”
The director of new media, PCC, Mr. Femi Fani-Kayode, in a statement issued on Sunday (yesterday), said most northerners do not share Atiku’s sentiment, adding that, unlike Atiku and members of his party, northerners do not see southerners as slaves, but regard all Nigerians as equal.
“Such tomfoolery is rarely not seen from the worst amongst us. Atiku’s words are not only unacceptable but also insulting, irresponsible and despicable.
“This is especially so, given the fact that by next year, we would have had eight years of Northern/Fulani rule and now this man (Atiku) says we must have another eight years of it because that is what is ‘best for the north’.
“Most northerners do not believe this and thankfully they, unlike Atiku and members of his divided party, do not see southerners as slaves and they regard us all as being equal.”
Fani-Kayode noted Nigerians would not allow Atiku do to them what he did Wike, saying, “We will not be cheated or denied.”
He stressed that it was time for power to shift to the south and an overwhelming number of the people in the north and, certainly, all the northerners in APC believed that.
“Atiku is a dying breed, who still sees things from a regional, ethnic and religious prism. Nigeria has moved on from that and she deserves better. Our nation will not accept an ethnic bigot and tribal champion as their president,” he added.
Besides, spokesman for Tinubu-Shettima PCC, Mr. Bayo Onanuga, said Atiku’s statement to the effect that northerners do not need a Yoruba or Igbo president was the worst expression of ethnocentric opportunism ever uttered by a former Nigerian vice president.
“This, clearly, demonstrates how low a man honoured with the second highest office of the Nigerian constitution is willing to sink in search of a perennial wild goose chase after the highest office in the land.
“It confirms the argument that Atiku has feasted on such base, cheap, primordial sentiments to use the masses and the elite of the north as the ladder to ascend to power since 1989 without any dividends to show.
“In clear terms, Atiku who stole the PDP ticket, by a similar mindset, has cast himself as a northern candidate, who should solely be supported by the people from his region,” Onanuga said.
Wike who also reacted said while he doubted the possibility of Atiku making such a statement at a critical time of the nation’s history, such disposition of the presidential candidate would justify his (Wike’) fight for equity, justice and fairness in the PDP.
The governor who made the remark in Port Harcourt on Monday shortly after arriving from Spain, also said called on the party to address the issue urgently and appeal to Nigerians otherwise people would begin to see the party as one that lacks justice and equity.
To set the record straight, spokesman for Atiku, Mr. Paul Ibe, lashed out at the APC turning fact on its head.
“For the benefit of the innocent public who might be hoodwinked by the usual behaviour of APC in telling a lie, what transpired was a direct question to Atiku to address the Northern audience on why he should be voted for by the northern electorate.
“In answering this question, Atiku started with a joke by addressing the questioner as ‘Mr. Northerner’ which is a veiled criticism of why he limited his question to the northern audience in the first place.
“Continuing, Atiku explained without a slur, unlike the APC candidate would, that what matters the most to the Northern electorate is a candidate who has built bridges of unity across other parts of the country and not necessarily a Northern candidate who lacks the credentials of national spread and acceptability.
“Those were the unambiguous remarks of the PDP presidential candidate. But because the APC does not possess any tangible ideas to campaign on for their candidate, they resorted to dubious tactics of diverting public attention, first, away from the failures of their party in the past seven years plus and, secondly, to shift attention away from the embarrassing gaffes of their presidential candidate in his public communication which they frequently shy away from.
“Of course, a failed political party and a presidential candidate who cannot withstand five minutes of unscripted speech would not have anything tangible to talk about other than to resort to irritating scavenging like they have done in this case.
“On the same day when Atiku stood agile and cerebral before his hosts at the Arewa House, the APC candidate whose only entitlement for president is because of an ethnic identity claim was also at a public function in Kaduna and publicly embarrassed his host, Governor Nasir el-Rufai, by saying that he should not contemplate pursuing higher educational qualifications and likening him to ‘a rotten case that has turned into a bad situation.’
“Are we to play to the gallery, we could have rushed to the press to make a bad case for such rotten remarks. We did not because we know that the upcoming election is not about scoring cheap political gains, but about ensuring that Nigerians have a fair deal in the next president that they will be electing,” Ibe said in a statement.
