Atiku Will Disunite Nigeria, Cause Strife – APC

The All Progressives Congress (APC) on Sunday, slammed the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP), Atiku Abubakar, saying he will disunite the country.

APC Tackles Atiku Over Statement

The party also said Atiku will inflict the worst kind of strife and discord on Nigeria than he has done to the PDP if voted in as president in 2023.

The APC started this in reaction to the comment made by Atiku at the Arewa town hall policy dialogue in Kaduna, yesterday, Saturday.

The PDP presidential candidate had said, “What the average Northerner needs is  somebody who is from the North … he doesn’t need a Yoruba Candidate or an Ibo Candidate.”

Reacting in a strongly worded statement, the National Publicity Secretary of the APC,
Barr. Felix Morka said Atiku’s statement is a decisive attack on “our national unity.”

The statement reads, “Atiku’s statement is a decisive attack on our national unity. 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 ethno-religious pluralistic society as Nigeria. Our country does not need this kind of highly inflammable rhetoric now or ever.

“What is even more confounding is that this Presidential Candidate of the PDP has touted himself to be on a mission to unify Nigeria. 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.

“Atiku seeks to inflict on Nigeria discord and strife of a worse kind than he has inflicted on his PDP. Against the dictates of his party’s constitution on the principle of power rotation between North and South of Nigeria, Atiku wrested Presidential Candidacy and left his party in fractious disability.

“In direct contrast to Atiku’s schismatic tendency, our Northern Progressive APC Governors stood valiantly in support of the emergence of a Southern Presidential Candidate of our Party in demonstration of patriotic commitment to national unity, equity, and fairness. That is what Nigeria needs, now and ever.

“And that is the commitment that Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, our Presidential Candidate brings in his aspiration to serve as President. As Governor of Lagos State, his executive cabinet was a rare and admirable reflection of ethnic and religious diversity. 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.”

Meanwhile, Kanyi Daily reported that Atiku spoke on Nigeria’s unity, saying he doesn’t see any Nigerian as Igbo, Hausa, or Yoruba.