Atiku Abubakar, former Nigeria’s Vice President, says northerners need a president who hails from the North.
Abubakar, who is the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), spoke Saturday at the interactive session of the Arewa townhall policy dialogue in Kaduna.
This was as the All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu Friday called Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) ”a termite party.”
Abubakar, who hails from Adamawa in the north-east, told his audience which included a significant percentage of persons of Hausa and Fulani extraction, that they don’t need an Igbo or Yoruba as president but “someone from the north.”
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The former Vice President said he has crisscrossed Nigeria’s 36 states and understands their peculiarities and diversities.
Abubakar said the northerners should trust him with their votes, adding that he’s the most qualified to be president.
“I have traversed the whole of this country,” he said.
“I know the whole of this country. I have built bridges across this country. I think what the average northerner needs is somebody who is from the north, and who also understands the other parts of Nigeria and who has been able to build bridges across the rest of the country.
“This is what the northerner needs. He (northerner) doesn’t need a Yoruba candidate, or an Igbo candidate. This is what the northerner needs.
“I stand before you as a pan-Nigerian of northern origin.”
As a backlash to the statement, Femi Fani-Kayode, former Nigeria’s Minister of Aviation and Tourism reacted Abubakar’ statement that Northerners need to vote for him, not Igbo or Yoruba.
The former Vice President said Northerners need to vote for him rather than a Yoruba or Igbo candidate because he’s a Pan-Nigerian with a northern extraction that has built bridges across the country.
In taking to his verified Twitter handle, Fani-Kayode noted that “Atiku’s words are not only unacceptable but also insulting, irresponsible and despicable. They recognized the fact that if we want our nation to continue to enjoy peace and remain united into the distant future we must be fair in our dealings with one another”
“Atiku still see things from a regional, ethnic and religion prism,” he added
Also reacting, Dr. Dabo @dannygeez01 and @PrideOfAPeacock in his Tweeter handle wrote ‘‘That’s how they are deceiving the north.’’
