The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, has been fingered to have breached Section 97 of the Electoral Act, following his statement to Northerners that they should vote for him in the 2023 election because he hails from the northern region.
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.”
Recall that Atiku made the remarks while responding to a question posed to him by the spokesman of the Northern Elders Forum, NEF, Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, during an Interactive Session With Arewa Joint Committee held on Saturday in Kaduna State.
The remark was said to be in reference to the presidential candidates of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu and his Labour Party counterpart, Peter Obi.
The PDP flag bearer, a Fulani from Adamawa State, declared that “what the average Northerner needs is somebody who’s from the North and also understands other parts of the country and has been able to build bridges across the country.
“This is what the Northerner needs. He doesn’t need a Yoruba or Igbo candidate. I stand before you as a pan-Nigerian of northern origin,’’ the ex-vice-president stated at the interactive session.
However, his comment has attracted widespread condemnation from the APC, the LP, the New Nigeria People’s Party, the Yoruba socio-cultural group, Afenifere, the apex Igbo group, Ohanaeze Ndigbo and civil society organisations.
This is happening against the backdrop of the crisis in the PDP which has resulted in the withdrawal of five governors and many members of the Southern bloc of the party from Atiku’s campaign council.
Those who criticized Atiku on Sunday said despite presenting himself as a pan-Nigerian candidate, the former vice-president’s previous actions had aroused suspicions about his stance on critical national issues.
Atiku stirred a firestorm in May after he deleted a post on his Facebook and Twitter pages condemning the killing of Deborah Samuel, a student of Shehu Shagari College of Education, who was killed for allegedly posting comments that blasphemed Prophet Mohammed.
After coming under a barrage of threats from northerners who asked him to forget his presidential ambition for criticising Samuel’s murder, Atiku hurriedly deleted the post, claiming it was done without his approval.
Atiku’s statement was an attack on the country’s long-preserved national unity- APC
Reacting, the ruling APC said Atiku’s statement inciting northern electorates to shun Igbo and Yoruba candidates was unbecoming of an elder statesman.
The National Publicity Secretary of the APC, Felix Morka, in a statement on Sunday described Atiku’s utterance as an attack on the country’s long-preserved national unity.
He attributed the statement to the PDP candidate’s desperation to rule the country.
Scolding Atiku, who is running for the President for the sixth time, the APC stated, “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 ethnoreligious, pluralistic society as Nigeria. Our country does not need this kind of highly inflammable rhetoric now or ever.’’
The party further expressed surprise that Atiku who claimed to be on a mission to unify the country could engage in acts that undermined national unity.
“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.
Touting the credential of its presidential candidate, Tinubu, and contrasting it with Atiku’s statement, the ruling party noted, “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.”
Berating the PDP candidate, the APC Presidential Campaign Council stated that his incitement of Northerners to snub Yoruba and Igbo candidates has exposed his true intention to Nigerians.
This was contained in a statement signed by the Director, Media and Publicity of the Presidential Campaign Council, Bayo Onanuga.
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.”
Onanuga further dismissed Atiku’s claims as a detribalized Nigeria as pure hogwash, adding, ‘’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.
“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.”
“Atiku to tender an unreserved apology to Nigerians over his ethnocentric sentiments”- LP
The Chief Spokesman of the Obi-Datti Presidential Campaign Council, Yunusa Tanko, called on Atiku to tender an unreserved apology to Nigerians over his ethnocentric sentiments.
Tanko stated that it is wrong for anybody whether in a position of authority or not to use the ethnic card as a yardstick or campaign tool in Nigeria at the moment.
He said, “What we observed is that it is unfair for somebody who had been in the saddle of leadership of this country to play the ethnic card as a way of generating support.
“Our principal has made it clear long before now that even when people are trying to play ethnic agenda, nobody should look at him as an Igbo candidate. Our movement is a Nigerian project for the Nigerian people.
“So, in the interest of our democracy and unity of this country, which of course we represent, I think the former vice-president should apologize to Nigerians in such a way that it would show him as a true leader of a free country.
“Our principal has made it clear too that if there are issues that have to do with his co-candidate, he would be able to answer them personally. I know he actually prefers to speak on issues like this personally.”
The media aide to the LP Presidential candidate, Emeka Obasi, pointed out that he was shocked to see an elder statesman playing such an ethnic card.
He said, “I saw the video of Atiku’s ethnic sentiment but I didn’t want to believe he said those things. So, I waited in vain hoping he will deny saying them before I comment.”
“Atiku has shown that he cannot lead and unite this country”- Ohanaeze Ndigbo
Speaking in the same vein, the Ohanaeze Ndigbo, in a statement on Sunday by its Secretary-General, Okechukwu Isiguzoro, said by Atiku’s utterances, he had finished whatever was left of the PDP.
“We find it very weird and disappointing that an elder statesman and a presidential candidate 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 a unifier, Atiku is further pushing the country into disintegration. He has shown that he cannot 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,” Ohanaeze said.
The apex Igbo group added that the five PDP governors led by the Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike had been proved to be the true lovers of the country.
It said, “We can see that the party has even suspended the presidential campaign after the flag-off in Uyo recently. All is not well with the team PDP.
“Nobody can trust a man who said he is a stepping stone for the actualisation of the South-East presidency in the future but within 48 hours, he offered the same presidency to Wike. It’s absurd to see how the PDP’s presidential team now hawks counterfeit promises.”
“Atiku should be preaching unity instead of seeking to divide the country”- Afenifere
The pan-Yoruba socio-political organisation, Afenifere similarly flayed the PDP candidate, saying it was disappointed in him.
The spokesman for Afenifere, Jare Ajayi, in a telephone interview castigated Atiku for resorting to an ethnicity campaign, noting that he should be preaching unity instead of seeking to divide the country.
