Politics

Northerner Remark: Atiku Not An Ethnic Champion – PDP

Published

2 years ago

Oct 17, 2022.

The PDP has defended Atiku over his northerner remark, saying he’s not a ethnic champion.

Eko Hot Blog reports that the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has dismissed allegations that its presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, is playing ethnic and tribal politics.

EDITOR’S PICKS

Atiku has been under fire for claiming over the weekend that the north needs a northerner as president, not an Igbo or Yoruba person.

He made the comment at a stakeholders’ meeting that had a significant presence of northerners in Kaduna.

The All Progressives Congress (APC) subsequently accused Atiku of stoking ethnic sentiments.

The party’s presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu, also described the former vice president as a “tribal jingoist.”

In a statement issued by PDP spokesman, Debo Ologunagba, late Sunday night, the party knocked the APC for its criticism of Atiku.

The PDP described as “shameless and irresponsible” that the APC will go to the extent of “deliberately distorting, doctoring, misinterpreting and taking out of context, the comment by the PDP Presidential Candidate at a Stakeholders’ meeting in Kaduna State on Sunday, in a bid to smear his image as a Pan-Nigerian leader.”

The party stated that its presidential candidate is a symbol of national unity, cohesion and tolerance.

“For clarity and avoidance of doubt Atiku Abubakar remains a Pan-Nigerian leader; a symbol of national unity, cohesion and tolerance who is comfortable and loved in all parts of the country,” the statement said.

“He had never and will never set any part of our country against the other as being mischievously hyped by the APC.

“To set the record straight, the PDP Presidential Candidate, in responding within the context of the question put to him at the event noted that he had built bridges across the country and that what Nigerians including an average northerner need was a Pan-Nigerian leader and not an ethnic champion.

“Of course, Nigerians are wise and can fully understand the contextual import of the statement by Atiku Abubakar which is that what Nigerians need is a competent and Pan Nigerian leader and not a regionally inclined individual.

“We know that the APC is jittery over the overwhelming popularity of Atiku Abubakar across the nation because of his focus on issues that will improve the lives of Nigerians and as such the APC is desperate to smear his Pan-Nigerian standing.

“Moreover, Nigerians know that if there is any Party that has inflicted discord and strife of a worst kind in our country, it is the divisive APC which has violently balkanized our nation and brazenly elevated nepotism, tribalism, ethnicity and sectional chauvinism as official Policies of State.“

The statement further said, “It is the APC which mobilized thugs and hoodlums in Lagos State recently to attack persons of other ethnicities at INEC registration centers. Nigerians have not forgotten how APC leaders evicted people of other ethnicities and threatened to chase them to the lagoon for supporting other parties in the 2019 general elections circle.

“Under the APC, Nigeria became so divided that sectional self-determination agitation escalated with many regions establishing their own quasi-security outfits in total loss of faith in the APC administration.

“The APC is a party of shameless treasury looters, selfish power grabbers and incompetent lot who must not be allowed to stay a day longer in office beyond May 29, 2023.”