The Atiku Abubakar Presidential Campaign Organisation, yesterday, said Nigeria did not need a leader, whose idea of development was to move the country from a rotten to a bad state. It was a reference to the presidential candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.

The campaign team of the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, alleged that Tinubu represented the greatest threat to national cohesion and democratic norms. It dismissed allegations by APC that the PDP presidential candidate was playing ethnic politics, saying in a statement by one of its spokespersons, Kola Ologbondiyan, that the ruling party’s comments best describes Tinubu.

But the APC Presidential Campaign Council (PCC) insisted that Atiku’s assertions on Saturday in Kaduna, during an interactive session of the Arewa Townhall Policy Dialogue, were irresponsible and unbecoming of a former vice president of the country.

Atiku, who hails from Adamawa State, in the North-east geopolitical zone, had been quoted as telling his audience in the North-west state of Kaduna, “I have traversed the whole of this country. I know the whole of this country. I have built bridges across this country.“I think what the average northerner needs is somebody who is from the north, who also understands the other parts of Nigeria, and who has been able to build bridges across the rest of the country.“This is what the northerner needs. He doesn’t need a Yoruba candidate or an Igbo candidate. This is what the northerner needs. I stand before you as a pan-Nigerian of northern origin.”
The statement was followed by a backlash of angry feelings among Nigerians, particularly, on the social media.Nonetheless, Tinubu indicated his intention to honour an invitation for an interactive session with some northern leaders under the auspices of Arewa Joint Committee.

Moreover, PDP said it was undeterred by alleged plots by those it described as anti-democratic forces to cause tension and disrupt its presidential rally today in Kaduna State.

It claimed such forces were uncomfortable and unhappy with the success of the party’s on-going reconciliation efforts, stability, and popularity.At the same time, Director-general of the Atiku campaign and Governor of Sokoto State, Aminu Tambuwal, called on the various PDP support groups in the state to embark on door-to-door campaign for the success of the party at all levels in the 2023 general election.Similarly, the Anambra State chapter of APC said it had commenced grassroots mobilisation for Tinubu’s victory as well as the success of all other candidates contesting on the party’s platform in the 2023 elections.

“In case Tinubu has forgotten, we want to remind him how his disruptive choice of same faith ticket, which he has been propagating since 2007, would have created a huge division and disaffection among compatriots but for the intervention of eminent Nigerians.“Does Tinubu think that Nigerians have overlooked his arrogant display of ethnic proclivities via his Yorubalokan/Emilokan saga? What could be more divisive than this?“It is imperative to state that the campaign of calumny against Atiku notwithstanding, he is the pan-Nigerian leader loved and respected across the six geo-political zones of our nation.”