The All Progressives Congress (APC) has said the statement of the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, that northerners need a president who hails from the North was “ a decisive attack on our national unity”.

The former Vice President, while speaking at the interactive session of the Arewa townhall policy dialogue in Kaduna on Saturday, had said the northerners don’t need an Igbo or Yoruba as president in 2023 but “someone from the north”.

Reacting via a statement issued on Sunday by the National Publicity Secretary of the APC, Felix Morka, the ruling party said Atiku, with his statement, instigated strife and disunity in the country “in pursuit of his befuddled political self-interest”.

The APC added that Nigerians need a leader to promote the national unity of the country over ethnicity.

It said: “If, as Atiku believes, the average Northerner needs a Northern President now, after a Northern President, when will they ever not need a Northern President? What does Atiku think the average Southerner needs? Why is it about what the average Northerner needs, or even what the average Southerner may need? Why is it not about what Nigeria and Nigerians need? Nigerians need bold and visionary leadership anchored on a firm commitment to transcendental national unity, over and above ethnic or sectional obsessions.

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“Atiku’s words ring loud of extreme and mindless desperation, and such an extremely desperate man cannot and must not be entrusted with the most important job of President – a job which core duty is that of leading, uniting and working in the best interest of all in an ethno-religious pluralistic society as Nigeria. Our country does not need this kind of highly inflammable rhetoric now or ever.

“What is even more confounding is that this presidential candidate of the PDP has touted himself to be on a mission to unify Nigeria. The cat has finally been let out of the bag of him that pays lip service to unity while working hard to undermine our national unity. Our Northern citizens and patriots know far better than what Atiku thinks, and will not walk down that slippery slope with him.

“Evidently, Atiku seeks to inflict on Nigeria discord and strife of a worse kind than he has inflicted on his PDP. Against the dictates of his party’s constitution on the principle of power rotation between and North and South of Nigeria, Atiku wrested presidential candidacy and left his party in fractious disability.

“In direct contrast to Atiku’s schismatic tendency, our Northern Progressive APC Governors stood valiantly in support of the emergence of a Southern presidential candidate of our party in demonstration of patriotic commitment to national unity, equity and fairness. That is what Nigeria needs, now and ever.

“And that is the commitment that Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, our presidential candidate brings in his aspiration to serve as President. As Governor of Lagos State, his executive cabinet was a rare and admirable reflection of ethnic and religious diversity.

“We are confident he will enthrone equity, fairness, inclusion, and unity as operating national policy when elected as President in next year’s general election, as we urge Nigerians to do,” the APC stated.

The Star