Bola Tinubu, the presidential candidate for the All Progressives Congress, APC, has called his rival from the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, a “tribal jingoist.”
The former vice president’s statement that Nigerians need a pan-African president rather than a Yoruba, Igbo, or Northern leader sparked a response from Tinubu, who called it the “worst manifestation of ethnocentric opportunism” he had ever heard.
Atiku’s tribalism, according to Tinubu, was to blame for the PDP’s leadership issue.
His remarks were included in a statement released on Sunday, October 16, and signed by Bayo Onanuga, the director of media and publicity.
The statement read; “The statement of Peoples Democratic Party’s presidential candidate, Alhaji Abubakar Atiku, to the effect that Northerners don’t need a Yoruba or Igbo president is the worst expression of ethnocentric opportunism ever uttered by a former Nigerian Vice President.
“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 1989 without any dividends to show.
“But we are not surprised by his desperate position. Atiku has resorted to whipping up ethnic sentiments, knowing that his chances of being elected have become a mirage. He has himself, not anybody else, to blame for his expected electoral misfortune. First, he broke the fundamental rules of power rotation in his party and the country.
“As if this cardinal sin was not enough, the PDP candidate has remained defiant in the face of pressure by preserving the two topmost posts in his party for people from his region. The Nigerian public now know better that a man who has been campaigning as a so-called unifier of our disparate groups, is a tribal jingoist, who has now totally eviscerated all pretensions to being a detribalised Nigerian.”
