2023: Atiku asked to step down if…

The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar have been advised to withdraw from the race if he is truly a “unifier” as claimed.

Labour Party National Vice Chairman (South-East), Chief Innocent Okeke, Innocent Okeke gave the advice in reaction to Atiku’s recent statement in Awka, the Anambra State capital.

Atiku had said his becoming president would be the stepping stone to actualising president of South-East extraction.

But, in his reaction, Okeke said, “This trick won’t work this time around”.

Describing the comment as not only insensitive, Okeke said that it was a big insult to the Igbo nation.

“It is unconscionable that at a time the country is on the brink of division, occasioned by nepotism and dominance of a particular region in the governance and the yearning for unity and equity, Atiku chose to insult Ndigbo right at their home front.”

LP Vice Chairman, however, told the former VP to stop employing “old and outdated political tricks” to hoodwink Ndigbo to support him.

“Atiku is employing the old and outdated political tricks on Ndigbo. It won’t work this time around.

“The people are awake and tired of playing second fiddle in a country where they are significant stakeholders. While a Northern Buhari completes eight years in Aso Rock next year, had Atiku any modicum of integrity, he wouldn’t have contested for the president, let alone asked for votes from the South and Ndigbo mainly.

“If Atiku is not up to spite Ndigbo as he usually does if he believes he is the stepping stone for Ndigbo to take their rightful place, why is he still in this presidential race? He claims to be a unifier, whereas he defiles equity which is the most potent unifying factor in Nigeria.

“Funnily enough, Atiku is among those that designed the agreement of rotation in 1999 and has witnessed it go around and now the undisputable right of Ndigbo; why does he want to change the goalpost in the middle of a match? This is unacceptable.

“One would recall that in respect to the principle of rotation and zoning arrangement which has been instituted, no southerner and no Igbo man opposed Atiku and Buhari, both of whom are from the north. It was a battle between a Northerner and another as the South watched from the sideline.

“Now it is the turn of the south and the Southeast precisely. Why is Atiku contesting and at the same time coming to the East to insult and mock them?”

“Atiku should be advised to withdraw from the presidential race, work on himself and purge away the old conspiracies that he and his cohorts have been using to teach their younger ones hate and disunity. This is the only practical way to be a unifier,” he advised.