The ruling All Progressives Congress APC has slammed a former vice president and presidential candidate of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party PDP, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar for his comments at the weekend in Kaduna where he reportedly said the average northerner needs a northern president and not a president of Yoruba or Igbo extraction.
According to the ruling party, Atiku evidently 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 wrestled 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 our national unity, equity, and fairness. That is what Nigeria needs, now and ever,” APC said in a statement on Sunday, October 16, 2022, by its spokesman, Felix Morka.
Speaking at the Arewa town hall policy dialogue in Kaduna, Atiku had allegedly declared that “What the average Northerner needs is somebody who is from the North… he doesn’t need a Yoruba Candidate or an Igbo Candidate.”
However, Morka noted that Atiku’s statement is a decisive attack on 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,” he stated.
APC added that 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.”
According to the ruling party, what is even more confounding is that Atiku continues to tout himself as one on a mission to unify Nigeria.
It noted that the cat has finally been let out of the bag of him who pays lip service to unity while working hard to undermine national unity.
“Our Northern citizens and patriots know far better than what Atiku thinks, and will not walk down that slippery slope with him.
“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,” APC stated.
