SaharaReporters had reported that Alhaji Atiku Abubakar on Saturday asked his fellow Northerners to vote for him in the 2023 general elections.
The Arewa Joint Committee has distanced itself from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar’s ethnic remark during a meeting with the committee on Saturday.
SaharaReporters had reported that Alhaji Atiku Abubakar on Saturday asked his fellow Northerners to vote for him in the 2023 general elections.
According to Atiku, Northerners needed to vote for him rather than a Yoruba or Igbo candidate because he was a Pan-Nigerian with a northern extraction that had built bridges across the country.
He made the remarks while responding to a question posed to him by the spokesman of the Northern Elders Forum, NEF, Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, during an Interactive Session with Arewa Joint Committee held on Saturday in Kaduna State.
The Presidential candidates of the African Action Congress (AAC), Omoyele Sowore, and that of the All Progressives Congress, Bola Tinubu, are from the South-West region while the Labour Party’s Peter Obi is from the South-East region.
“What the average Northerner needs is somebody who’s from the north who also understands that part of the country and has been able to build bridges across the country,” Atiku said.
“This is what the Northerner needs, it doesn’t need a Yoruba or Igbo candidate, I stand before you as a Pan-Nigerian of northern origin.”
Since the weekend, the comment has been widely condemned.
Reacting to Atiku’s comment, the Chairman of the Steering Committee, Malam Murtala Aliyu, stated that the same question posed to Atiku was also posed to other candidates, adding that every response expressed by the various candidates of various political parties is solely their opinion and has nothing to do with the joint committee's fundamental objectives.
He said, “Atiku should clear himself. The same question asked by the committee was ad-ministered to other presidential candidates too. So we have no business with the opinion expressed by our guests.”
According to the committee, “These interactions in them¬selves were not planned with the goal of endorsing a candidate. They are part of a longer process that plans to generate commit-ments to address the challenges of the North by candidates, and which covers a substantial part of the campaigning period.
“We plan to extract and pub¬lish these commitments so that Nigerians may measure and evaluate candidates against them. Our goal is to afford citizens an opportunity to match candidates against their commitments to matters that are central to the interests of the North.
“Until the elections in Feb¬ruary 2023, the North will be challenged to raise its vigilance over all electoral activities. It is vital that we prioritise evidence of competence, integrity, quality of preparation and commitment to address the challenges of the North among candidates.
“We will continue to invite at¬tention of the government to the security of the electoral process, and in particular the vulnerabil¬ity of many parts of the North to organise crime which may pose a serious threat to their right to participate in electing the next sect of leaders in 2023.
“The need to show restraint and discipline as politicians can¬vass for our elections has never been more pressing. The entire nation must be open to all contes¬tants and free from violence.
“The exploitation of ethnic and religious fault lines is ex¬tremely dangerous, and the na¬tion is already showing signs of stress owing to this exploitation.”