APC, LP criticises Atiku over Comment
The All Progressives Congress APC and the Labour Party, LP have criticised Atiku Abubakar, the Peoples Democratic Party’s PDP presidential nominee, for his anti-Yoruba and anti-Igbo remarks.
Given that he is from the north, Atiku on Saturday urged Northerners to support him in the 2023 election.
“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 Adamawa-born former Vice-president said in a viral video.
His remarks were not well received, and the presidential candidate was attacked by a number of groups, including the ruling party, the Labour Party, and other civil society organisations.
Atiku’s remark is an attack on the nation’s long-preserved national unity, according to Felix Morka, the APC National Publicity Secretary, who responded on Sunday.
Morka claims that the PDP presidential candidate’s statement demonstrates his eagerness to be elected 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 said.
“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 whose core duty is that of leading, uniting and working in the best interest of all in an ethnoreligious, pluralistic society as Nigeria. Our country does not need this highly inflammable rhetoric now or ever.’’
Morka expressed surprise that Atiku, who stated he was trying to unite the nation, could take actions that threatened it.
The vice presidential candidate for the LP, Senator Dr. Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed, also criticised Atiku for his remarks that would endanger the nation’s unity.
On Sunday, he referred to the former vice president as an ethnic bigot incapable of even uniting his party on Twitter.
“Atiku is an ethnic bigot. A big one at that. Someone that cannot unify his party wants to unify Nigeria? Liar!!!” he tweeted.
