"Stepping stone" comment: You claim to be a unifier, whereas you defile equity, LP tells Atiku.

Image:TheGuardian.

The Labour Party (LP) in the South East on Thursday, described as " insensitive" and an "insult," Atiku Abubakar's recent statement that he is the “stepping stone” to a South East person becoming the president of Nigeria.

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar commented while flagging off his campaign at Awka, Anambra State.

Reacting to Atiku's remark, the National Vice Chairman of the Labour party in the South East, Chief Innocent Okeke accused Atiku of lacking integrity and being in the habit of disrespecting Ndigbo, otherwise, being a party to the 1999 rotation of power agreement,

he should have withdrawn from the presidential race to allow the Southeast to take its due, The Guardian reports.

Chief Innocent Okeke, said: “At a time the country is on the brink of division, occasioned by nepotism and dominance of a particular region in governance, and the yearning for unity, as well as equity, is on the front burner, Atiku chose to insult Ndigbo right at their home front.

Atiku Abubakar.

“Asking Ndigbo to vote for an extension of Northern-Fulani-Muslim-ticket, when the Igbo are yet to test the presidency since 1999, whereas the North has been in charge for 10 years, is a mockery.

“Atiku is employing the old and outdated political tricks on Ndigbo. It won’t work this time around. The people are awake and tired of playing second fiddle in a country they are major stakeholders. 

"Had Atiku any modicum of integrity, while a Northern Buhari is about completing eight years in Aso Rock next year, he wouldn’t have contested for the president let alone ask for votes from the South and Ndigbo, particularly.

“If Atiku is not up to spite Ndigbo as he usually does; if he believes he is the stepping stone for Ndigbo to take their rightful place, why is he still in the presidential race?

“He claims to be a unifier, whereas he defiles equity, which is the most potent unifying factor in Nigeria.

“Atiku is among those who designed the rotation of power agreement in 1999 and has witnessed it go around. 

"Now that it is the indisputable right of Ndigbo, why does he want to change the goalpost in the middle of the match? This is unacceptable,” Okeke said.

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