Ethnic Comment: Atiku On His Own – Northern Elders

As the dust is yet to settle on the ethnic slur credited to the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Atiku Abubakar, the Arewa Joint Committee has said Atiku’s view did not represent that of the group.

The chairman of the Steering Committee, Malam Murtala Aliyu, made this disclosure on Tuesday, a day after the conclusion of the interface with political parties.

He noted that the same question was posed to all the candidates invited to the dialogue stressing that every comment made by everyone represented their views and not those of the group.

Recall the Joint Committee comprising of six Northern groups namely; Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), Arewa House, Sir Ahmadu Bello Memorial Foundation, Northern Elders Forum (NEF), Arewa Research and Development Project (ARDP) and Jamiyyar Matan Arewa had hosted some presidential candidates for some few days.

Atiku who made the first presentation was caught urging the northerners to vote for him and not the Igbo or Yoruba.

“An average Northerner does not need a Yoruba or Igbo president, but a northern President who is a pan Nigeria,” Atiku had responded to a question put to him by the spokesman of NEF, Hakeem Baba

Absolving the Joint Committee of any complicity, Aliyu said, “Atiku should clear himself. The same question asked by the Committee was administered to other presidential candidates too. So we have no business with the opinion expressed by our guests.”

The committee explained that, “These interactions in themselves were not planned with the goal of endorsing a candidate. They are part of a longer process that plans to generate commitments to address the challenges of the North by candidates, and which covers a substantial part of the campaigning period.

“We plan to extract and publish 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 February, 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 attention of the government to the security of the electoral process, and in particular the vulnerability of many parts of the North to organised 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 canvass for our elections has never been more pressing . The entire Nation must be open to all contestants and free from violence.

“The exploitation of ethnic and religious fault lines is extremely dangerous, and the nation is already showing signs of stress owing to this exploitation.”