The All Progressives Congress presidential candidate, Bola Ahmed Tinubu has described his opponent in the 2023 general elections as a desperate politician by whipping up ethnicity to win.
Tinubu was reacting to Atiku’s speech during the gathering of Arewa Consultative Forum in Kaduna. The PDP candidate said in a viral video: “What the average Northerner needs is somebody who is from the north and also understands that part of the country and has been able to build bridges across the country. 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 APC candidate noted that the remarks is the worst expression of ethnocentric opportunism ever uttered by a former Nigerian Vice President.
“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.
“As if this cardinal sin was not enough, the PDP candidate has remained defiant in the face of pressure by preserving the two topmost posts in his party for people from his region.
“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.
“He is demonstrably the antithesis of a pan-Nigerian politician. Nigerians of goodwill, who daily, seek a united and prosperous nation, should reject Atiku and his party at the polls next February.
“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”, Tinubu said.
