2023: Tinubu, Atiku hurl verbal missiles at each other

Presidential candidates of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, and his Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, counterpart, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, were at each other’s jugular, yesterday, over alleged divisive politics and threat to national harmony.

Tinubu fired a salvo at Atiku Abubakar, saying the PDP flagbearer belongs to a dying breed of politicians who resort to ethnic and regional sentiments in their desperate bid to capture power.

tiku had at the weekend in Kaduna, during an interactive session with Arewa Joint Committee, allegedly said that Northerners needed someone of his stature and not a Yoruba or Igbo president.

Head of New Media at the APC Presidential Campaign Council PCC, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode in a statement, said Atiku’s words were not only unacceptable but also insulting, irresponsible and despicable.

“This is especially so, given the fact that by next year, we would have had eight years of Northern/Fulani rule and now this man (Atiku) says we must have another eight years of it because that is what is ‘best for the North’.

“Most Northerners do not believe this and thankfully, they, unlike Atiku and members of his divided party, do not see Southerners as slaves and they regard us all as being equal.

“We will not allow Atiku to do to us what he did to Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State. We will neither be cheated nor denied.Show us what you have done for women before, pro-Tinubu group challenges Atiku, Obi.

“It is time for power to shift to the South and an overwhelming number of the people in the North and certainly all the Northerners in the APC believe that. They recognize 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 is a dying breed who still sees things from a regional, ethnic and religious prism. Nigeria has moved on from that and she deserves better. Our nation will not accept an ethnic bigot and tribal champion as their President.

“Atiku Ibn Dubai does not speak for the North, he speaks for his deluded and blind PDP supporters and his PCC. Nigeria does not need a Northern or Southern President, she needs a Nigerian President and Bola Ahmed Tinubu is that President,” added Fani-Kayode.