L-R: Peter Obi (Igbo), Atiku Abubakar (Hausa), and Bola Tinubu (Yoruba), leading presidential candidates on the platforms of Labour Party, Peoples Democratic Party and All Progressive Congress respectively
By NewsBits
In what can be described as extreme bigotry in electioneering campaign, the former Vice President and the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar has restated the reason his fellow Northerners need to vote for him in the 2023 elections.
Atiku said Northerners need to vote for him rather than a Yoruba or Igbo candidate describing himself ironically as ‘a Pan-Nigerian with a northern extraction that has built bridges across the country.’
The former Vice President stated this 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 event was transmitted live on Arise TV.
When Baba-Ahmed asked Atiku why Northerners should vote for him, the PDP presidential candidate replied, “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.”
He also said he knows every part of the country and if elected as Nigerian president in 2023, he would form a government of national unity.
He said: “I have traversed the whole of this country, I know the whole of the country, I have built bridges across the country.”
Also, Atiku answered questions about ecology, the economy, women participation in politics, and others.
NewsBits learnt that several groups such as the Arewa Consultative Forum, Arewa House, Sir Ahmadu Bello Memorial Foundation, Northern Elders Forum, and Arewa Research and Development Project, among others are the organizers of the interactive session.
