The presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu has described his counterpart from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar as a ‘tribal jingoist’.
While reacting to the comment credited to Atiku that Nigerians need a pan-African president, not a Yoruba, Igbo, or Northern leader, Tinubu said such was the ‘worst expression of ethnocentric opportunism’ the former Vice President ever made.
Tinubu stressed that Atiku’s tribalism was responsible for PDP’s leadership crisis.
His remark was contained in a statement signed by the Director of Media and Publicity, Bayo Onanuga, on Sunday.
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The statement read; ‘The statement of Peoples Democratic Party’s presidential candidate, Alhaji Abubakar Atiku, to the effect that Northerners don’t need a Yoruba or Igbo president is the worst expression of ethnocentric opportunism ever uttered by a former Nigerian Vice President.
‘This clearly demonstrates 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. 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.
‘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.
‘As if this cardinal sin was not enough, the PDP candidate has remained defiant in the face of pressure by preserving the two topmost posts in his party for people from his region. The Nigerian public now know 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.’
Africa Today News, New York reports that the next election will be coming up in February next year.