2023: APC, Ohanaeze, Others Ask Atiku To Withdraw From Presidential Race Over Ethnic Profiling Statement

 

“This political folderol is enough to knock him out of the presidential race…The presidential candidate’s unguarded vituperation is a sad descent into ethnic laager, a blatant celebration of narrow parochial preachment”

PEGASUS REPORTERS, LAGOS | OCTOBER 17, 2022

The presidential frontliner of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) is in deep shit over a statement credited to him from a video cast of Saturday, October 15, 2022, while speaking at an event in Kaduna in which he urged his audience not to vote a Yoruba or Igbo candidate into power as the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Apex Igbo group, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, and others have asked the Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP) presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, to quit the race.

In the video, he told his audience, “What the average Northerner needs is somebody who’s 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.”

Reacting to Atiku’s comment, the APC Presidential Campaign Council spokesperson, Festus KeyamoKeyamo accused Atiku of playing the ethnic card ahead of the 2023 presidential election in a series of tweets.  Keyamo wrote: “This is the height of desperation & daredevilry on the part of Atiku!

“This is so horrendous, so horrible & so thoughtless for Atiku Abubakar to use ethnicity to campaign, saying the North does not need a Yoruba or Igbo candidate? My God! Atiku needs to quit the race TODAY!

“Some of his hirelings have brought out their hammers & nails to try to panel-beat this clear and obvious statement, instead of taking the route of honour to apologise to Nigerians or step down honourably from the race. No ‘repackaging’ or ‘panel-beating’ will repair this damage.”

Ohanaeze, the apex Igbo social-cultural group is noless pertubbed by the statement as it said,: “We find it very weird and disappointing that an elder statesman and a presidential candidate, in the person of a one-time Vice Presidential candidate of Nigeria could mount the podium at a public function and play such an ethnic card.

“We are worried that at such a time Nigeria is seeking for a unifier, Atiku is further pushing the country into disintegration; he has shown that he lacks the capacity to lead and unite this country.

“His ambition has already destroyed the PDP and pushed it from number one to third if not fourth force. Now, he wants to bring the same division into the affairs of the country. We ask Nigerians to say no by rejecting him stoutly at the polls.”

In a similar vein, the National Coordinator of The Patriots Roundtable, Prince Uthman Shodipe-Dosunmu, in his reaction described the PDP candidate’s remarks as outrageous, “a nasty faux pas of the worst order.”

The statement reads: “Yesterday (Saturday) the PDP presidential candidate Alhaji Atiku Abubarkar who falsely claims to be a unifier urged Nigerians to vote for a northern candidate and disregard any candidate coming from the south. This is just putting it mildly. What Atiku actually posited is that both Yoruba and Ibo candidates are unreflective of the Nigerian Union.

“The presidential candidate’s unguarded vituperation is a sad descent into ethnic laager, a blatant celebration of narrow parochial preachment.

“This hurried, uncontemplative withdrawal into ethnic politics belongs to the dark ages of the past. It does not belong to the Nigeria of today. It is a statement that is stripped of statesmanship or enlightened leadership. Atiku hardly demonstrated a genuine leadership of patriotic pulchritude.

“This political folderol is enough to knock him out of the presidential race.

“In a nation of multi-ethnic groups, Atiku has stacked himself up there as the defender of a supergroup. This is hardly ennobling. It is infact a Freudian slip.

“Surely Nigeria does not need a divisive candidate who is selling his tribal origin as the only marketable tool to win the presidency. This is quite sickening and unacceptable.

“At this critical hour when the whole nation is faced with multifarious crisis of existence, it is the duty of a credible presidential candidate to preach what should bring the nation together. It is the duty of a credible leader to preach unity, healing, fairness and the necessary ingredients that will retrieve our nation from plunging into the abyss. Atiku has failed himself. He has failed his party. He has failed this nation. He should apologize and withdraw from the race immediately.”

Watch Atiku’s controversial statement in this video:

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