Eko Hot Blog reports that the presidential candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, has said northerners need a president who hails from northern Nigeria.
The former vice president made the assertion on Saturday at the interactive session of the Arewa townhall policy dialogue in Kaduna, northwest Nigeria.
Atiku was responding to a question about why northerners should vote for him as president on February 25, 2023.
The PDP presidential candidate argued that his audience, which included a significant percentage of persons of Hausa and Fulani extraction, don’t need an Igbo or Yoruba person as president but “someone from the north.”
Atiku, however, described himself as a pan-Nigerian of northern origin, saying he has crisscrossed Nigeria’s 36 states and understands their peculiarities and diversities.
The former vice president, who asked the northerners to trust him with their votes, added that he’s the most qualified to be president.
“I have traversed the whole of this country. I know the whole of this country. I have built bridges across this country. I think what the average northerner needs is somebody who is from the north, and who also understands the other parts of Nigeria and who has been able to build bridges across the rest of the country,” he said.
“This is what the northerner needs. He (northerner) doesn’t need a Yoruba candidate, or an Igbo candidate. This is what the northerner needs.
“I stand before you as a pan-Nigerian of northern origin.”
Atiku hails from Adamawa State, northeast Nigeria.
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