APC faults ‘Atiku’s desperate resort to ethnic jingo in face of imminent defeat’

The Director, Media and Publicity, Tinubu-Shettima Presidential Campaign Council, Bayo Onanuga, has reacted to the “the statement of Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) presidential candidate, Alhaji Abubakar Atiku, to the effect that northerners don’t need a Yoruba or Igbo president.”

In a signed statement, yesterday, Onanuga described Atiku’s declaration as “the worst expression of ethnocentric opportunism ever uttered by a former Nigerian Vice President.”

The statement reads: “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 1999 without any dividends to show.

“Doubling down in his now infamous speech, Atiku said: ‘What the average northerner needs is somebody who is 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.’