The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar has drawn flaks for his comment against southern candidates gunning for President in 2023 as the All Progressives Congress (APC) lampooned Atiku for promoting what it termed as divisive tactics ahead of the next year’s polls.
The Director, New Media of the APC Presidential Campaign Council, Femi Fani-Kayode, said Atiku’s words were unacceptable, insulting, irresponsible and despicable.
A viral video had captured Atiku while speaking during the Arewa town hall policy dialogue in Kaduna on Saturday, saying, “What the average northerner needs is somebody who is from the North; he doesn’t need a Yoruba candidate or an Ibo candidate.”
This is as two popular candidates from the South: Former Governor of Lagos State, Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the APC and Former Anambra Governor, Peter Obi of Labour Party are among those slogging it out with Atiku in the 2023 presidential election.
But reacting to the controversial comment, Fani-Kayode, a former Aviation minister said, “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.’
“We will not allow Atiku to do to us what he did to Wike. We will not be cheated or denied. It is time for power to shift to the South and an overwhelming number of the people in the North and certainly all the northerners in the APC believe that.
“They recognise the fact that if we want our nation to continue to enjoy peace and remain united into the distant future. We must be fair in our dealings with one another.
“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.
“Nigeria does not need a northern or southern president, she needs a Nigerian president and Bola Ahmed Tinubu is that president.”
Similarly, the APC National Publicity Secretary, Barrister Felix Morka said what Atiku said was a decisive attack on national unity.
“Atiku’s statement is a decisive attack on our national unity. It is beyond the pale for a senior citizen and a former vice president of the Federal Republic to so brazenly instigate strife and disunity in our country in pursuit of his befuddled political self-interest.”
Reacting to APC’s vituperations, spokesman for the Atiku Presidential Campaign Organisation, Kola Ologbondiyan said, “Tinubu has been an apostle of regional politics where ethnicity and division along religious lines are dominant. As a matter of fact, his contemporary politics showcase a blatant disregard for ethnic groupings other than his.”
Also spokesperson for the Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Alex Ogbonna, came into the fray of the rebuttals, expressing disappointnent in Atiku’s speech saying, “It contradicts Atiku’s claims to being a cosmopolitan and detribalised Nigerian.
“That was a very provocative remark coming from a former vice president of Nigeria. His remark perhaps brings out his mindset about the country.
“It’s a Freudian slip. Something that slips from somebody’s mouth unintentionally, which reveals the persons deep feeling about something.”
“It is on record that the Igbo and the South voted for Abubakar Tafawa Balewa. They voted for Shehu Shagari, Umaru Yar’ adua and Muhammadu Buhari. So, why can’t there be reciprocity?
“He should have gone ahead with his campaigns without creating unnecessary ethnic tensions.”
