Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, has come under fire over comment that northerners needed someone from the north and not a Yoruba nor Igbo candidate in 2023.
Answering questions during an interactive session organised by the Arewa Joint Committee for presidental candidates in Kaduna, Atiku said: “I have traversed the whole of this country. I know the whole of this country. I have built bridges across the whole of this country.
“I think what the northerners need is someone who is from the north and also understands the other parts of Nigeria, who has built bridges across the country. This is what a northerner needs. He doesn’t need a Yoruba candidate or an Igbo candidate.”
ACTUAL NEWS Gathered that his comment has drawn backlash with many accusing him of canvassing for votes along ethnic lines while claiming to be a unifier.
Presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Ahmed Tinubu, described him as an ethnocentric opportunist.
Asiwaju, in a statement by Bayo Onanuga, director, Media & Publicity, Tinubu-Shettima Presidential Campaign Council (PCC), emphasised that Atiku lacked the rectitude to make such claim.
“The statement of PDP’s presidential candidate, Atiku 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,” Tinubu fired in the opening paragraph. 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.
“As if this cardinal sin was not enough, the PDP candidate has remained defiant in the face of pressure by preserving the two topmost posts in his party for people from his region.”
Former vice president of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Kingsley Moghalu, said Atiku saying what the north needed was a northerner to be president was a direct appeal to divisive ethnic sentiment and a denigration of the largest ethnic groups in Southern Nigeria.
“I was very disappointed to view the video clip of Atiku Abubakar, a former Vice-President of Nigeria, telling an audience in Kaduna that what the North needs is a northerner to be President, and not a Yoruba or Igbo candidate.
In the same vein, founder of Stanbic IBTC, Atedo Peterside, said Atiku misspoke.
“My take is that mistakes will be made by the candidates between now and February 2023. How they own up to and manage their mistakes may well be the difference,” he said.
SUN
