Fresh Crisis Hits Atiku Over Igbo, Yoruba Comment

By Oladosu Oluwagbenga 

Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, the Peoples Democratic Party‘s presidential candidate, has come under fire for urging Northerners to support him in the 2023 election because he is a northerner.

In reference to Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress and Peter Obi of the Labour Party, all of whom are Yoruba or Igbo, Atiku made the following statement at an interactive session with the Arewa Joint Committee in Kaduna on Saturday.

“What the typical Northerner needs is somebody who’s from the North and also knows that area of the country and has been able to develop bridges throughout the country,” the PDP flag bearer, a Fulani from Adamawa state said.

“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 ex-vice-president stated in a viral video.

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However, the APC, the LP, the New Nigeria People’s Party, the Yoruba socio-cultural group, Afenifere, the leading Igbo group, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, and civil society organizations have all strongly condemned his comment.

This is taking place against the backdrop of the PDP crisis, which has led to the resignation of five governors and a sizable number of PDP members from the Southern bloc from Atiku’s campaign committee.

There are allegations that the former vice president may have violated Section 97 of the Electoral Act with his statement on Saturday.

The section states, “A candidate, person or association that engages in campaigning or broadcasting based on religious, tribal or sectional reason to promote or oppose a particular political party or the election of a particular candidate, commits an offence under this Act and is liable on conviction to (a) a maximum fine of N1m or imprisonment for a term of 12 months or both and (b) in the case of a political party, to a maximum of N10m.’’

Despite presenting himself as a pan-Nigerian candidate, Atiku was criticized on Sunday for prior activities that raised questions about his position on important national issues.

In May, Atiku caused a commotion when he took down a tweet and Facebook post that condemned the murder of Deborah Samuel, a student at Shehu Shagari College of Education, who was allegedly killed for making anti-Muslim remarks.

Atiku quickly removed the tweet, alleging it was done without his permission, after receiving a deluge of threats from northerners asking him to abandon his presidential aspirations for criticizing Samuel’s death.

“Atiku Utterance, An Attack on Country’s Long-Preserved National Unity”

The ruling APC responded by saying that Atiku’s call for northern voters to reject Igbo and Yoruba candidates was unbecoming of an older statesman.

In a statement on Sunday, the National Publicity Secretary of the APC, Felix Morka, characterized Atiku’s remarks as an attack on the nation’s long-preserved national unity.

He explained the comments as the PDP candidate’s desperate attempt to seize power.

“It is beyond the pale for a senior citizen and a former Vice-President of the Federal Republic to so shamelessly incite strife and disunity in our country in pursuit of his confused political self-interest,” the APC scoffed at Atiku, who is running for president for the sixth time.

“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 also expressed amazement that Atiku, who allegedly claimed to be on a mission to unite the nation, could take actions that threatened it.

“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.

The ruling party emphasized the qualifications of its presidential candidate, Tinubu, and contrasted them with Atiku’s claim, noting that his executive cabinet as governor of Lagos State was a “unique and admirable manifestation of ethnic and religious variety.”

‘’We are confident he will enthrone equity, fairness, inclusion, and unity as operating national policy when elected as President in next year’s general election, as we urge Nigerians to do. ’’

The PDP candidate was criticized by the APC Presidential Campaign Council, which claimed that Nigerians were made aware of his true intentions by his instigation of Northerners to support the PDP candidate over Yoruba and Igbo contenders.

This was stated in a press release from the Presidential Campaign Council that was signed by Bayo Onanuga, director of media and publicity.

Onanuga described Atiku’s speech as ‘’the worst expression of ethnocentric opportunism ever uttered by a former Nigerian Vice-President.’’

He said the PDP flag bearer’s speech clearly demonstrated ‘’how low a man honoured 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 rules of power rotation in his party and the country.’’

“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 detribalised Nigerian,” Onanuga said in further dismissal of Atiku’s claims of a detribalized Nigeria as complete hogwash.

“Atiku only pays lip service to national unity, despite that it features as one of the five cardinal points of his so-called ‘Covenant with Nigerians.’ The facade is over, he is now fully naked before the Nigerian people.”