…Reject Atiku, Obi, you dont them, Tinubu tells Yoruba in Ekiti
… Northerners need somebody from the North, Atiku campaigns in Kaduna
…Unlike his claims, Atiku will disunite the nation, – APC, LP
By Ezeocha Nzeh and Myke Uzendu
The campaign strategies of the Presidential candidates of the ruling All Progressives Candidate, Bola Ahmed Tinubu and his Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) counterpart, Atiku Abubakar, have continue to attract condemnations and concerns over alleged plans to cause further ethnic division in the country ahead of the 2023 general elections
While Atiku had championed an ethnic based campaign when he addressed his supporters at the weekend in Kaduna, APC presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu described both Atiku and the presidential candidate of the Labour Party (KP), Peter Obi as unknown to Ekiti people, while urging them to reject the duo
“What the average Northerner needs is somebody who is from the North; he doesn’t need a Yoruba candidate or an Igbo candidate,” Atiku said in a viral video at the weekend in Kaduna during an Interactive Session with Arewa Joint Committee
Speaking in a similar manner, the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu, has told the people of Ekiti to reject the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar and this of the Labour Party (LP) ), Peter Obi.
Tinubu stated this while speaking at the swearing-in ceremony of Abiodun Oyebanji as the Governor of Ekiti State.
While addressing the crowd, Tinubu told the people to turn a blind eye to both Atiku and Obi as people they did not know.
“Another election is coming in February. They are coming. One will call himself Atiku, another will call himself Peter Obi. You don’t know them. The only person you know is Bola Ahmed Tinubu and you must deliver to me 95 per cent of the votes,
“Don’t be far away, the people that will give you a promise and keep the promise are here. We will take care of you and your children. We will give you a great future. We promise you a better Nigeria. May God Almighty continue to bless us all,” he stated.
Reacting to what it described as Atiku;s ehtnmic sentimen5ts, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) said the presidential candidate of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, will disunite Nigeria and inflict the worst kind of strife if voted as president in 2023.
APC National Publicity Secretary, Barrister Felix Morka, in a statement he issued on Sunday, described what Atiku’s comments as 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.
“But it is not surprising coming from a desperate and serial failed candidate for the office of President. If, as Atiku believes, the average Northerner needs a Northern President now, after a Northern President, when will they ever not need a Northern President? What does Atiku think the average Southerner needs? Why is it about what the average Northerner needs, or even what the average Southerner may need?
“Why is it not about what Nigeria and Nigerians need? Nigerians need bold and visionary leadership anchored on a firm commitment to transcendental national unity, over and above ethnic or sectional obsessions. Atiku’s words ring loud of extreme and mindless desperation, and such an extremely desperate man cannot and must not be entrusted with the most important job of President – a job which core duty is that of leading, uniting and working in the best interest of all in an ethno-religious pluralistic society as Nigeria. Our country does not need this kind of highly inflammable rhetoric now or ever.
“What is even more confounding is that this Presidential Candidate of the PDP has touted himself to be on a mission to unify Nigeria. The cat has finally been let out of the bag of him that pays lip service to unity while working hard to undermine our national unity. Our Northern citizens and patriots know far better than what Atiku thinks, and will not walk down that slippery slope with him.
“Evidently, Atiku seeks to inflict on Nigeria discord and strife of a worse kind than he has inflicted on his PDP. Against the dictates of his party’s constitution on the principle of power rotation between and North and South of Nigeria, Atiku wrested Presidential Candidacy and left his party in fractious disability.
“In direct contrast to Atiku’s schismatic tendency, our Northern Progressive APC Governors stood valiantly in support of the emergence of a Southern Presidential Candidate of our Party in demonstration of patriotic commitment to national unity, equity and fairness. That is what Nigeria needs, now and ever.
“And that is the commitment that Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, our Presidential Candidate brings in his aspiration to serve as President. As Governor of Lagos State, his executive cabinet was a rare and admirable reflection of ethnic and religious diversity.
“We are confident he will enthrone equity, fairness, inclusion, and unity as operating national policy when elected as President in next year’s general election, as we urge Nigerians to do.”
Also, Presidential Candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress APC, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu fired back at the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party PDP, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, describing the latter as belonging to a dying breed of politicians who resort to base ethnic and regional sentiments in the desperate bid to capture power.
Head of New Media at the APC Presidential Campaign Council PCC, Femi Fani-Kayode in a statement on Sunday said “such tomfoolery is rarely not seen from the worst amongst us”.
Fani-Kayode said Atiku’s word 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.
“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 recognize 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.”
Tinubu in a separate statement by the Director, Media and Publicity of his campaign council, Mr Bayo Onanuga noted that Atiku’s declaration to the effect that Northerners don’t need a Yoruba or Igbo president is the worst expression of ethnocentric opportunism ever uttered by a former Nigerian Vice President.
He said; “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 1999 without any dividends to show.
“Doubling down in his now infamous speech, Atiku said: ‘What the average Northerner needs is somebody who is 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.’
“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”.
Tinubu noted that Atiku’s public declaration which framed him as an ethnic and regional champion is unbecoming of a man who was once the Vice-President of Nigeria.
The APC standard bearer however said he was not surprised by Atiku’s desperate position, adding that the former vice president has resorted to whipping up ethnic sentiments, knowing that his chances of being elected have become a mirage.
“Atiku only pays lip service to national unity, despite that it features as one of the five cardinal points of his so-called ‘Covenant with Nigerians’. The facade is over, he is now fully naked before the Nigerian people”, Tinubu added.
Also, former Spokesperson in the 2019 Atiku Abubakar Presidential Campaign Council, Tim Ogwuru has advised the Presidential Candidate of Peoples Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar to apologize to Igbos and Yorubas over his ethnic commentary in Kaduna if he intends to get votes from those regions.
Reacting to the development, Ogwuru who is a chieftain of Labour Party asked the former Vice President to tender unreserved apology to Nigerians for whipping ethnic sentiments at the consultative meeting.
He said that the statement has made nonsense of the pan Nigeria and unifier claims of the PDP presidential candidate. He said that Atiku has disqualified himself from campaigning in Yoruba and Igbo lands adding that he cannot morally ask them to votes when he has already said that both tribes are inconsequential on his journey to the Presidential Villa in 2023.
According to Ogwuru, “The Honourable thing for him to do right now is to apologize profusely to the igbo’s and Yoruba’s. This is someone who kept saying that he is unifier. How can you go to Yoruba or Igbo land to campaign with this type commentary from a senior politician”.
He further said that the debasing statement has already reduced the ranking of Atiku in the eyes of the electorate adding that he has distinguished himself as an ethnic champion who is more of a divider than a unifier. He said that such remarks can only be made by one who has perfected plans to rig his way into the Presidential Villa.
