The All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Council’s Director of Media and Publicity, Bayo Onanuga has on Sunday chastised the Peoples Democratic Party’s presidential nominee, Atiku Abubakar, over his derogatory statements about the Igbo and Yoruba tribes.
In a signed statement on Sunday, Bayo Onanuga said Atiku’s statement revealed his actual intentions to Nigerians.
Onanuga is reacting to the statement Atiku made on Saturday during the interactive segment of the Arewa Town Hall Policy Dialogue in Kaduna State. Atiku at the forum stated that Northerners should put their trust in a president from the North.
Credible News reported that Atiku, an Adamawa native, encouraged a Hausa and Fulani crowd not to vote for an Igbo or Yoruba for president but rather for someone of northern descent.
Atiku said: “I know the entire country.” I’ve built bridges all throughout the country. I believe that the ordinary northerner requires someone from the North who also understands the rest of Nigeria and has the ability to build bridges throughout the country.
“This is just what the northerners require.” He (a northerner) does not require a Yoruba or an Igbo candidate. This is exactly what the northerners require.”
Onanuga, who was furious after Atiku’s address, called it the “worst articulation of ethnocentric opportunism ever expressed by a former Vice President.”
Onanuga posited stated that the PDP standard bearer’s statement plainly indicated how low a man honoured with the second highest office in the Nigerian Constitution is willing to stoop in pursuit of the highest office in the land.
“It reinforces the notion that Atiku has feasted on such basic, cheap, primordial feelings to utilise the masses and the elite of the North as pawns,” Onanuga stated.
“It reinforces the premise that Atiku has feasted on such basic, cheap, primordial feelings to use the masses and elite of the North as the ladder to ascend to power since 1989 with no dividends to show,” the statement said.
Onanuga added that, “In plain terms, Atiku, who stole the PDP ticket, has portrayed himself as a northern candidate, who should be supported entirely by people from his region.”
“We regard Atiku’s public declaration, which portrayed him as an ethnic and regional champion, as unworthy of a guy who was once Nigeria’s Vice President.”
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“However, we are not surprised by his terrible situation. Atiku has turned to inciting ethnic sentiments, knowing that his chances of being elected have vanished.
“He is solely responsible for his likely electoral defeat.” “First, he violated the fundamental laws of power rotation in his party and the country,” Bayo Onanuga averred.
His words: “The Nigerian populace now understands that a man who campaigned as a so-called unifier of our diverse groups is a tribal jingoist who has now completely eviscerated all pretensions to being a detribalised Nigerian.”
“Atiku only pays lip respect to national unity, despite the fact that it is one of the five cardinal points of his so-called “C” strategy.”
You can read more of such stories at Credible News and The Cheer News
