The anti- Igbo, Yoruba comment made in Kaduna on Saturday by the presidential candidate of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party ( PDP ), Atiku Abubakar has continued to draw sparks from different quarters.
Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike on Monday called on the PDP to urgently apologize to Nigerians over the comment made by its Presidential candidate to avoid being seen as insensitive and lacking in the justice that it preaches.
Wike said he doubted that Atiku could make such a statement, but maintained that taking such a position at this time of the country's transition further supports the call for equity, fairness, and justice.
Wike was speaking at the Port Harcourt International Airport shortly after arriving from his visit to Spain.
The Rivers State Governor visited Spain with Oyo state Governor Seyi Makinde, Governor Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia state, and Samuel Ortom, Governor of Benue state.
Atiku was quoted as saying during an interactive session with the Arewa Joint Committee in Kaduna on Saturday, “I know the whole of this country. I have built bridges across this country.
"I think what an average northerner need is somebody who is from the north, who also understands the other parts of Nigeria, and who has been able to build bridges across the rest of the country. This is what the northerner needs
"He (the northerner) doesn’t need a Yoruba or an Igbo candidate. This is what the northerner needs. I stand before you as a pan-Nigerian of northern origin.”
You are an extremely desperate man, APC tells Atiku.
The ruling APC party has also reacted saying that Atiku is brazenly instigating disunity in the country by asking northern voters to shun Igbo and Yoruba candidates.
APC National Publicity Secretary Felix Morka, in a statement on Sunday, described Atiku’s comment as unbecoming of an elder statesman and an attack on the country’s long-preserved national unity which he claims to be interested to uphold.
The APC said the comment has succeeded in exposing Atiku's desperation to rule Nigeria and warned that such a desperate person should not be entrusted with the leadership of a pluralistic country as Nigeria.
"It is beyond the pale for a senior citizen and a former Vice-President of the Federal Republic to so brazenly instigate strife and disunity in our country in pursuit of his befuddled political self-interest.
"But it is not surprising coming from a desperate and serial failed candidate for the office of President. If, as Atiku believes, the average Northerner needs a Northern President now, after a Northern President, when will they ever not need a Northern 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.
"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 kind of highly inflammable rhetoric now or ever.’’
The party further said that Atiku is out to undermine the unity of the country while claiming to be on a mission to unify the country.
‘’The cat has finally been let out of the bag of him that pays lip service to unity while working hard to undermine our national unity. Our Northern citizens and patriots know far better than what Atiku thinks, and will not walk down that slippery slope with him,’’ Morka noted.
Atiku is on a perennial wild goose chase -
APC Presidential Campaign Council.
The APC Presidential Campaign Council has described Atiku's incisive comment as that of a man on a perennial wild goose chase.
This was contained in a statement signed by the Director, Media and Publicity Bayo Onanuga.
Onanuga said the speech exposed Atiku's true intention to Nigerians and represents ‘’the worst expression of ethnocentric opportunism ever uttered by a former Nigerian Vice-President," demonstrating ‘’how low a man honored with the second highest office of the Nigerian Constitution is willing to sink in search of a perennial wild goose chase after the highest office in the land.’’
The statement added, “It confirms the argument that Atiku has feasted on such base, cheap, primordial sentiments to use the masses and the elite of the North as the ladder to ascend to power since 1989 without any dividends to show.
"In clear terms, Atiku who stole the PDP ticket with a similar mindset has cast himself as a northern candidate, who the people from his region should solely support.
We view Atiku’s public declaration which framed him as an ethnic and regional champion as unbecoming for a man who was once a former Vice-President of Nigeria. But we are not surprised by his desperate position. Atiku has resorted to whipping up ethnic sentiments, knowing that his chances of being elected have become a mirage.
"He has himself, not anybody else, to blame for his expected electoral misfortune. First, he broke the fundamental .
‘’The Nigerian public now knows better that a man who has been campaigning as a so-called unifier of our disparate groups, is a tribal jingoist, who has now totally eviscerated all pretensions to being a detribalized Nigerian," said Onanuga.
Atiku is a Pan- Nigerian leader – PDP insists.
The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has insisted that its presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar is a Pan- Nigerian leader who is much loved and accepted across the country.
Reacting to the All Progressives Congress, APC claim that Atiku Abubakar, is playing an ethnic, tribal, and divisive politics, PDP said that APC's reaction shows that the party is jittery over Atiku's popularity across the country.
The party accused the APC of deliberately distorting and misinterpreting Atiku's comment in Kaduna to smear his reputation.
Reacting to the comment by the APC, PDP’s spokesman, Debo Ologunagba, in a statement insisted that Atiku is a pan-Nigerian leader.
PDP noted that APC’s reaction has shown that the ruling party is jittery about Atiku’s popularity across the country.
The statement reads: “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.
"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.
"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.”
PDP regretted that Nigeria has never been more divided than it is under the APC-led government.
Atiku drew criticisms in May after he deleted his post condemning the killing of Deborah Samuel on his Facebook and Twitter pages .condemning the killing of
Deborah Samuel was a student of Shehu Shagari College of Education, who was killed for allegedly posting a comment that blasphemed prophet Muhammed.
Atiku hurriedly deleted the post and claimed it was done without his approval after he received a series of threats from the north threatening not to support his presidential ambition.
Politics and Opinion.
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