According to the Atiku Abubakar Presidential Campaign Organization, Nigeria does not need a leader whose vision for growth is to take the nation from a bad to a worse position. It made allusion to Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate for presidency.
Atiku Abubakar, the leading contender for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), claimed that Tinubu was the biggest danger to democratic principles and national unity. In a statement made by one of its spokespersons, Kola Ologbondiyan, it denied claims made by the APC that the PDP presidential candidate was engaging in ethnic politics, asserting that Tinubu was best described by the remarks made by the ruling party.
Atiku’s claims, according to the APC Presidential Campaign Council (PCC), were reckless and unworthy of a former vice president of the nation and were made on Saturday in Kaduna during an interactive session of the Arewa Townhall Policy Dialogue.
According to reports, Atiku, who is from the North-east geopolitical zone’s Adamawa State, said to his audience in the North-west state of Kaduna, “I have traveled around this entire country. I am familiar with the whole nation. I have erected bridges all over this nation.
The typical northerner, in my opinion, requires someone who is from the north, who also comprehends the other regions of Nigeria, and who has been successful in bridging those gaps.
“The northerner needs something like this. He doesn’t require an Igbo or a Yoruba candidate. The northerner requires this. I’m a northern-born pan-Nigerian who stands before you.
Following the announcement, there was a backlash of irate reactions among Nigerians, especially on social media.
However, Tinubu made it clear that he intended to accept a request to participate in an interactive meeting with some northern leaders organized by the Arewa Joint Committee.
Furthermore, PDP claimed it was unaffected by purported plans to agitate the situation and obstruct its presidential rally in Kaduna State today by what it called anti-democratic forces. It asserted that these elements were uneasy and dissatisfied with the popularity, stability, and success of the party’s ongoing efforts at reconciliation.
Aminu Tambuwal, the governor of Sokoto State and director-general of the Atiku campaign, urged the various PDP supporters in the state to launch a door-to-door campaign to ensure the success of the party at all levels in the general election in 2023.
APC’s Anambra State chapter similarly said that grassroots mobilization for Tinubu’s triumph and the success of all other candidates running on the party’s platform in the elections of 2023 has begun.
However, Atiku’s team stated that its candidate is “renowned across the length and breath of our nation as a symbol of cohesion, unity, and purposeful collaboration” and denounced the APC for targeting the PDP presidential candidate.
For the avoidance of doubt, the PDP campaign council said that Nigeria does not need a leader who would take the nation from a poor condition to a worse one.
“If anything, Tinubu has been a proponent of regional politics, where ethnic and religious conflict are strong. In fact, his current politics demonstrate an egregious disrespect for ethnic groups other than his.
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“Nigerians have not forgotten previous elections where Tinubu threatened to chase away compatriots who did not share his ethnic-based political inclinations and ideas.
“Neither have Nigerians forgotten Tinubu’s threats to expel his political rivals from Lagos or his willful destruction of election materials in regions where his party would not fare well.
“In case Tinubu has forgotten, we wish to remind him how, but for the intervention of distinguished Nigerians, his divisive choice of same faith ticket, which he has been preaching since 2007, would have produced a great deal of division and disaffection among countrymen.
Does Tinubu believe that Nigerians have ignored his conceited ethnic prejudices through the Yorubalokan/Emilokan saga? What is perhaps more dividing than this?
It is important to note that notwithstanding the campaign of defamation against Atiku, the six geopolitical zones of Nigeria like and revere him as their leader.
The PDP presidential candidate’s comments made during a Saturday public engagement at the Arewa House were described as unfortunate and deceptive by Atiku’s media adviser, Paul Ibe, in a separate statement.
“For the benefit of the innocent public, who might be duped by the usual APC behavior of spreading a massive falsehood, what transpired was a direct question to Atiku to address the northern audience on why he should be supported by the northern voters,” the statement read.
When Atiku addressed the questioner as “Mr. Northerner,” he made a joke out of the fact that his question was only intended for those in the north.
“Continuing, Atiku explained—without using a derogatory term—that a candidate who has forged ties of amity with citizens in other areas of the nation mattered more to the electorate in the north than a candidate from the region who lacks credentials for national acceptance and spread.
“Those were the PDP presidential candidate’s crystal-clear words. But because the APC lacks concrete plans to promote their candidate, they have turned to questionable strategies to distract the public’s attention from their party’s failures over the past seven years and from their presidential candidate’s embarrassing public communication gaffes, which they frequently avoid mentioning.
Of course, a failed political party and a presidential candidate who cannot handle five minutes of spontaneous speaking would not have anything concrete to discuss instead of turning to grating scavenging, as they have in this instance.
“Irresponsible and Reprehensible”: Atiku’s Statement
The statement attributed to PDP presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar, according to the APC’s Presidential Campaign Council (PCC), was reckless.
Atiku stated, “What the typical northerner needs is somebody who is from the north and also knows that portion of the country and has been able to establish bridges across the country,” during his speech at the Arewa town hall policy forum over the weekend in Kaduna. The northerner needs this; he does not need an Igbo or a Yoruba candidate. I’m a northern-born pan-Nigerian who stands before you.
According to a statement released yesterday by PCC’s Director of New Media, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, most northerners do not share Atiku’s viewpoint. He also noted that, in contrast to Atiku and members of his party, northerners do not view southerners as slaves and instead view all Nigerians as equal.
“Such tomfoolery is rarely not seen from the worst among us,” said Fani-Kayode. Not only are Atiku’s statements offensive, careless, and nasty, but they are also inappropriate.
This is especially true given that by next year, Northern/Fulani control would have lasted for eight years, and that man (Atiku) now demands that it continue for another eight years since that is what is “best for the north.”
The majority of northerners, unlike Atiku and the divided members of his party, do not hold southerners to be slaves and, luckily, do not hold us all to be less than equal.
Fani-Kayode stated, “We will not be tricked or denied,” and added that Nigerians would not allow Atiku to treat them the same way he treated Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike.
He emphasized that it was time for the center of power to transfer to the south, and the vast majority of northerners, including all northern members of the APC, agreed with him.
“Atiku is a fading breed, who still sees things from a regional, ethnic, and religious prism,” the APC campaign spokesman claimed. Nigeria deserves more now that it has moved past it. Our country will not elect a tribal leader and anti-ethnic bigot as president.
Additionally, Bayo Onanuga, director of media and publicity for the Tinubu-Shettima Presidential Campaign Council, claimed that Atiku’s remark that northerners didn’t need a Yoruba or Igbo president was the worst example of ethnocentric opportunism ever made by a former vice president of Nigeria.
This, plainly, indicates how low a guy honored with the second-highest office under the Nigerian constitution is ready to go in pursuit of a never-ending wild goose chase after the highest office in the land, Onanuga added.
The claim that Atiku has been using the masses and the elite of the north as a stepping stone to power since 1989 without any tangible results to show for it is supported by the evidence.
“In plain language, Atiku who stole the PDP ticket, by a similar attitude, has portrayed himself as a northern candidate, who should only be supported by the people from his region,” the author writes.
PDP Unafraid of Attempts to Disrupt Its Programs
PDP claimed that despite purported anti-democratic plans to obstruct the party’s events in Kaduna State, it was not deterred.
“Our party’s position is predicated on information at our disposal about how these anti-party elements, who are not pleased with the campaign victories achieved by the national chairman, Senator Iyorchia Ayu, and other party leaders, have concluded plots to orchestrate tension and create an impression of crisis within the PDP by recruiting thugs to protest and disrupt scheduled programs of the PD,” the PDP stated in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Debo Ologunagba.
Ologunagba claimed that PDP had information on how the suspected persons were determined to trash the campaign rally slated for today in Kaduna State because they were enraged by the enormous success of the party’s presidential campaign flag-off in Uyo last Monday.
The PDP declared, “These anti-party interests plot to stage a protest tomorrow in Kaduna State with unfounded allegations, claims, and selfish demands aimed to discredit the integrity and judgment of top party organs, including the National Executive Committee (NEC) and the Board of Trustees (BoT), as well as the national chairman.”
The PDP is unafraid and supporting the good people of Kaduna State as they prepare for our presidential campaign rally, which will take place peacefully in Kaduna State on Monday, October 17, 2022, according to the statement’s further words.
Nigerians are uniting behind Atiku Abubakar and the PDP because of their purpose to “Rescue, Rebuild, and Redirect our nation from the misrule of the All Progressives Congress (APC),” according to our party.
Atiku files a lawsuit in response to the nation’s problems asking for prayers and divine intervention.
Atiku Abubakar, the PDP’s presidential candidate, urged the nation’s religious authorities to step up their prayers and look to God for answers to the many problems the nation is currently facing. Atiku made the plea on Saturday when meeting with the clergy and Ulama at various events in Kaduna.
The PDP presidential candidate said on Sunday in Kaduna during an interactive session hosted by the PDP Presidential Campaign Organization (PPCO) in collaboration with the Supreme Council for Sharia in Nigeria (SCSN), the Northern Islamic Youth Scholars and Imams, as well as Leaders of Women In Daawah, that wherever religious freedom, peace, and stability were threatened, development and good governance would remain improbable.
He claims that Nigeria’s ongoing insecurity, destitution, and economic stagnation “impact all parts of life and foster general underdevelopment.
“Even if there is good government, if individuals cannot freely declare and practice their religion and live in harmony in a civilized environment, the nation will continue to regress.
“For this reason, all Nigerians—Ulama, clergy, and people in general—should pray for divine intervention so that there will be competent leadership that would foster overall national development that is advantageous to all.
Aminu Tambuwal, the director general of PPCO, hailed Atiku as a statesman with excellent leadership qualities when talking about his political background. According to Tambuwal, the rallies were held when the party and its presidential candidate started to run an issue-based campaign in order to obtain the blessings of the Ulama and clergy.
Tambuwal, who is also the governor of Sokoto State, urged the nation’s religious leaders to keep praying for peace while explaining the party’s choice of Governor Ifeanyi Okowa, a Christian from the south, as Atiku’s running mate.
We all understand how important it is to be inclusive, just, and fair; for this reason, the PDP chose Governor Okowa to be our presidential candidate’s running mate, the governor added.
He expressed the optimism that the party’s messages of inclusivity would be heard throughout the nation, “which will rescue it under Atiku as President in 2023,” and that the nation’s alarming state would pass under a PDP leadership.
Sheikh Sambo Rigachikun, the leader of SCSN, highlighted concerns such as agricultural development, insecurity, unemployment, and unpredictable FOREX in his speech as topics on which the nation’s future leadership should concentrate its efforts.
Additionally, Rigachikun emphasized the necessity for the Federal Republic’s ministers to be swiftly appointed by any government that is elected the next year.
In a same spirit, Sheikh Umar as-Sudani urged the Ulama to support candidates in a sincere and godly manner. According to him, as nonpartisan participants, “Ulama have real roles to play in the emergence of leaders, freedom of religion, and the establishment of proscriptive norms and legislation that will dissuade commitment of vices in line with Islamic teachings.”
In a vote of gratitude, former governor of Kano State Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau, who made reference to Atiku’s comments, reaffirmed that it was in keeping with an Islamic dictum that said people should work hard and hope for their goals to come true.
Shekarau, a former minister and current PPCO member, said that the candidate’s speech “is in tandem with this injunction. In addition to asking you to pray for us, give us advice, and provide us critical criticism, we will relentlessly campaign until we succeed, God willing.
“We’re pleading with God to allow Atiku to win the presidency. If he doesn’t succeed, may Allah make up for the setback by giving him and the country as a whole something better. May Allah continue to favor our nation and keep us all secure within it.
In his motion for a vote of thanks, the PDP candidate for governor of Kaduna State, Hon. Isa Ashiru Kudan, praised Atiku and the party for planning the event and the participants. Kudan promised that neither the party nor its presidential candidate will ignore the important problems brought up by the clergy and Ulama.
Today, Tinubu will meet with Northern Leaders
Bola Tinubu, the APC’s presidential candidate, will accept the Arewa Joint Committee’s offer to participate in an interactive session with leaders from northern Nigeria today.
The meeting was a part of a larger interaction with selected presidential contenders to discuss their plans for the region ahead of the 2023 general election, according to a statement released yesterday by his media office and signed by Tunde Rahman.
As part of his decision to reach out to all facets of Nigerian society with his message of hope, unity, and prosperity, Tinubu would attend the event, according to Rahman.
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A consortium of six northern organizations is organizing the event, which will take place in Kaduna’s Arewa House. They consist of the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), the Jam’iyyar Matan Arewa, the Arewa Research and Development Project, the Northern Elders Forum (NEF), the Sir Ahmadu Bello Memorial Foundation, and the Arewa House.
Today at 1pm, live coverage of the public discussion will air on national television.
Tambuwal Offers Advice to Support Groups Regarding Door-to-Door Campaign
Aminu Tambuwal, the governor of Sokoto State and the director general of the PDP Presidential Campaign Council, urged the party’s diverse supporters in the state to launch a door-to-door campaign to support the success of the party’s candidates at all levels in the upcoming general election.
Tambuwal made the announcement at the Mallam Ubandoma Volunteers Forum’s opening ceremony in Sokoto.
Tambuwal, who was represented by Aminu Achida, Speaker of the Sokoto State House of Assembly, assured the populace that the PDP would free Nigerians from the economic hardships, insecurity, and poverty brought on by the APC administration. He urged Nigerians to vote out the APC because it had let them down in every area. He promised that the PDP will support them and work with them both before, during, and after the general election in 2023.
In his remarks, Hon. Bello Goronyo, the chairman of the PDP in Sokoto State, expressed appreciation for the work done by PDP support organizations to rally voters at the state, local, ward, and voting unit levels.
The chairman, who was represented by the PDP zonal vice chairman for Sokoto South, Alhaji Sule Magaji, said that the PDP was the party to beat in light of the difficulties that Nigerians are currently experiencing as a result of the APC government.
The event’s guest speaker and member of the House of Representatives, Hon. Abdullahi Salame, also spoke and urged the electorate to cast wise votes for reputable and capable candidates who had Sokoto State’s best interests at heart as well as candidates who were prepared to save Nigeria from the difficulties brought on by the APC administration.
Mallam Sa’idu Ubandoman Sokoto, the PDP candidate for governor of Sokoto State, promised to provide excellent governance and advance the state’s development.
Anambra APC Starts Grassroots Tinubu Campaigning
The APC branch in Anambra State announced that it had started organizing at the local level to support Bola Tinubu, the party’s presidential candidate, and all other candidates running under the party’s banner in the 2023 elections.
In a recent national television appearance, Anambra APC criticized Chris Ngige, the minister of labor and employment, for not officially endorsing Tinubu.
In a statement released yesterday, the state party chairman for Anambra, Basil Ejidike, urged the public to ignore any misunderstandings Ngige’s response in the aforementioned TV interview may have given rise to. He also stated that Anambra would show Tinubu and the party enormous support in the upcoming general election.
The statement said, “Ngige never claimed to speak for the party during the interview; whatever he stated was personal and does not represent the viewpoint of the party in Anambra State.
Ejidike stated that Anambra APC would put up great effort to offer Tinubu unexpected results at the polls in spite of all obstacles.
However, he raised concern regarding the actions of Okelo Madukaife, the party’s former state publicity secretary.
Valentine Oliobi had taken Madukaife’s place as the official press secretary of the party in the state, according to Ejidike, who claimed that Madukaife had been fired by the party in 2021.
Madukaife has been disguising himself as the party’s spokesperson even though he is not a member, according to Ejidike. I don’t understand why Okelo Madukaife continues to pose as the state APC’s press secretary if the party’s former national chairman, Adams Oshiomhole, could resign.
“Tinubu Cannot Handle the Rigorousness of Governance”
Bola Tinubu, the presidential candidate of the APC, was allegedly unfit for office according to Phrank Shaibu, the PDP presidential candidate’s special assistant on public communication.
In a statement released yesterday, Shaibu argued that Tinubu had made one too many mistakes with his remarks in Kaduna about making a “rotten situation into a horrible one.” “Tinubu is exhausted; he should go home and relax,” he said.
“When you look at the APC presidential candidate, you will find someone who is weak and exhausted,” claims Shaibu. You are also aware of the several errors he has made prior to the beginning of the campaigns.
“The Kaduna comment is unforgivable because it is one mistake too many. It’s not necessary to win the presidency at any costs. You return home when you are exhausted. Nigeria cannot afford to give over a sick country to a sick president since the country is currently in a grave state with every sector of the economy in profound decline.
Shaibu claimed that while stepping outside to deliver his speech at the Eagle Square, the location of the party’s convention, on June 8, 2022, Tinubu faltered and almost collapsed but was supported by a security guard.
Shaibu also said that the former governor of Lagos State’s hands were noticeably shaking during his speech at the convention, which could be an indication of illness. He emphasized that the nation required a strong someone who could handle the demands of the presidency.
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The APC presidential contender in August 2021 reportedly spent more than 60 days touring hospitals abroad while receiving treatment for an unidentified illness, according to sources in the media. Do we want a president like this to lead our nation through these tremendous economic and security challenges?
“This nation deserves a capable leader. People who are ill should not hold the post of president. Despite his best efforts, Tinubu is now weak and exhausted and ought to be permitted to return home and enjoy a well-earned rest.
