Atiku Abubakar, the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) vice presidential candidate, has addressed the contentious remark he made in Kaduna on Saturday.
According to an earlier report by Anaedoonline.ng, Atiku urged northerners not to support a Yoruba or Igbo presidential candidate in 2023 while speaking in Kaduna State.
Atiku said that since he is a Pan-Nigerian of northern ancestry who has established bridges throughout the nation, Northerners should support him rather than a Yoruba or Igbo candidate.
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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.”
The APC, which was offended by the remark, sent a statement on Sunday through its national publicity secretary, Barr. Felix Morka, in which it stated that the former vice president preferred to divide the nation than to bring about unity as he has often declared he wants to do.
Atiku Abubakar’s spokesperson, Paul Ibe, quickly responded by accusing the ruling party of trying to dupe Nigerians by making a giant falsehood.
Atiku’s assistant claimed the former governor of Lagos State embarrassed Governor Nasir el-Rufai at a recent event and compared Bola Tinubu, the candidate of the ruling party, to someone who can’t stand five minutes of spontaneous speech.
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The statement reads: “It is regrettable to say the least that the All Progressives Congress (APC) would decide to cause a show of shame by a disingenuous attempt to turn fact on its head about what the Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar said during a public engagement at the Arewa House on Saturday.
“For the benefit of the innocent public who might be hoodwinked by the usual behavior of APC in telling a big 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, 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.
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“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 Abubakar 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 State 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.’
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“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 argued that Tinubu’s request to become president of the most populous Black nation in the world is abhorrent because he lacks the integrity to be completely honest about his elementary school records.
He contends that Tinubu’s aspiration to rule Nigeria is an insult to the dignity of all Black nations and, in fact, a disgrace to all Nigerians as a whole.
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