APC and Ohanaeze take on Atiku over Arewa forum comments

• Atiku: APC dishonest, upsetting facts• Tinubu and Obi sell their candidacy to northern leaders• Kwankwaso declines invitation, alleges Arewa's plan to back candidate

Yesterday's controversy followed comments by Peoples' Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, who reportedly advised northerners to reject Yoruba or Ibo candidacies in the 2023 elections.< /p>

Atiku was responding to questions posed by Northern leaders during the interactive session of the Arewa Joint Committee, comprising the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), Northern Elders Forum (NEF), Sir Memorial Foundation Ahmadu Bello, Jam'iyyar Matan Arewa, Arewa Research and Development Project and other bodies talk with presidential candidates at Arewa House on Saturday.

The PDP standard bearer, while appealing for support from the Arewa leadership, said, "I have traveled all over this country, I think what an average northerner needs is c is someone who comes from the North and also understands the different parts of Nigeria and has been able to build bridges across the different parts of the country. This is what the Northerner needs, he doesn't need of a Yoruba or Igbo candidate, I come before you as a Pan-Nigerian of northern descent."

Responding, the Ohanaeze Ndigbo, in a statement on Sunday by its secretary general, Mazi Okechukwu Isiguzoro, said by statements of Atiku, that it had finished all that was left of the PDP.

“We fear that at a time when Nigeria seeks a unifier, Atiku will push the country further into disintegration; he has shown that he does not have the ability to lead and unite this country.

“His ambition has already destroyed the PDP and taken it from number one to third and even fourth force. Now he wants to bring the same division into the affairs of the country. emphatically rejecting at the ballot box,” Ohanaeze said.

The Igbo apex group added that the G-5 governors, led by Nyesom Wike, have proven to be the true lovers of the country.

“No one can trust a man who said he was a stepping stone to actualizing the Southeast Presidency in the future, but within 48 hours he offered the same Presidency to Wike."

APC also criticized Atiku for his remarks. The party's National Publicity Secretary, Felix Morka, remarked that Atiku's stance speaks volumes about his unfitness to administer the country, saying that Atiku's stance during the Arewa Town Hall Policy Dialogue in Kaduna was an attack on national unity.

He noted, "If, as Atiku thinks, the average Northerner needs a Northern President now, after a Northern President's eight-year term, when will he ever have Need a Northern President? According to Atiku, what does the average Southerner need?

"Why is this what the average Northerner needs, or even what the average Southerner might need? Why isn't this what Nigeria and Nigerians need? Nigerians need bold and visionary leadership anchored on a firm commitment to transcendent national unity, beyond ethnic or sectoral obsessions.

“And that is the commitment that our presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, brings in his aspiration to become president.” But in a strong defense, Atiku explained what he said, questioning why APC was turning the facts around.

In a statement from his media adviser, Paul Ibe, he said: "For the benefit of the innocent public who might be deceived by the usual behavior of APC in telling a lie, what happened was a matter direct to Atiku to answer the Northern audience on why he should be elected by the Northern electorate.

"In answering this question, Atiku started with a joke by addressing the questioner as 'Mr. Northerner' which is a veiled criticism of why he limited his question to the Northern audience in the first place. .

"Continuing, Atiku explained without insult, unlike the APC candidate, that what matters most to the northern electorate is a candidate who has built bridges of unity across other parts of the country and not necessarily a northern candidate who lacks the credentials of national outreach and acceptability.

"These were the unambiguous remarks of the PDP presidential candidate. But because the APC has no tangible ideas on which to campaign for its candidate, they have resorted to questionable tactics to deflect the public attention, first, of their party's failures over the past seven years and, second, to distract from their presidential candidate's embarrassing blunders in his public communication from which they frequently shy away.

"Of course, a failed political party and a presidential candidate who can't stand five minutes of unscripted speech wouldn't have anything concrete to discuss other than resorting to an irritating cleanup like they did. in this case.

"The same day Atiku woke up...