THE media teams of presidential candidates of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Bola Tinubu, were at each other’s throats on Sunday, over the statements by their principals during their engagements in Kaduna on Saturday.
Tinubu had, during his speech at the seventh edition of Kaduna Economic and Investment Summit (KADInvest 7.0) on Saturday, quipped, saying Governor Nasir el-Rufai of Kaduna State had “turned a rotten situation to a bad one.”
Tinubu had since come out to attribute the mumbo jumbo to Freudian slip. Atiku also, during his engagement with northern leaders in Kaduna, was quoted to have said the average northerner needs a presidential candidate of northern extraction.
However, a statement by the Media Adviser to Atiku Abubakar, Paul Ibe said: “It is regrettable to say the least that the All Progressives Congress (APC) would decide to cause a show of shame by a disingenuous attempt to run fact on its head about what the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar said during a public engagement at the Arewa House on Saturday.
“For the benefit of the innocent public who might be hoodwinked by the usual behaviour of APC in telling a big lie, what transpired was a direct question to Atiku to address the Northern audience on why he should be voted for by the Northern electorate.
“In answering the 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 that what matters the 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 spread and acceptability.
“Those were the unambiguous remarks of the PDP presidential candidate. But because the APC does not possess any tangible ideas to campaign on for their candidate, they resorted to dubious tactics of diverting public attention, first, away from the failure of their party in the past seven years plus and, secondly, to shift attention away from the embarrassing gaffes of their presidential candidate in his public communication which they frequently shy away from.
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“On the same day when Atiku Abubakar stood agile and cerebral before his hosts at the Arewa House, the APC candidate whose only entitlement for presidential is because of an ethnic identity claim who also at a public function in Kaduna State and publicly embarrassed his host, Governor Nasir el-Rufai by saying that he should not contemplate pursuing higher educational qualifications and likening him to a ‘rotten case that has turned into a bad situation.’”
In another statement by Special Assistant on Public Communication to Atiku, Phrank Shaibu, the PDP campaign council insisted that “Tinubu is tired and should go home and rest.”
It added, “This country deserves a fit leader. The office of the president is not for ailing people. Tinubu has tried his best but he is now weak and tired and should be allowed to go home and take a deserved rest.”
In its reaction to Atiku’s statement, the Tinubu-Shettima media directorate described it as unacceptable and insulting.
Director of Special Media Projects and Operations, Femi Fani-Kayode, said the statement attributed to Atiku did not represent the position of the average northerner. Fani-Kayode maintained that most northerners share the position that power should shift to the southern part of the country after eight years tenure of the incumbent president, Muhammadu Buhari. In another separate statement, Director, Media and Publicity, Bayo Onanuga, accused Atiku of recourse to ethnic jingo in the face of imminent defeat.
“The statement of PDP presidential candidate 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.”
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