Northerners need somebody from North, not Yoruba or Igbo —Atiku

Ahead of the 2023 elections, the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar has said that the northerners need somebody from the North who understands other parts of the country.

According to him, they don’t need anybody from the South-West and the South-East.

Peter Obi of the Labour Party, and Bola Tinubu of the ruling All Progressives Congress, who are top contenders in the presidential election alongside Atiku, are from the South-East and South-West respectively.

Atiku, who was responding to a question thrown at him by the spokesman of the Northern Elders Forum, Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, during an Interactive Session With Arewa Joint Committee held on Saturday in Kaduna State, said northerners need to support a candidate from their region.

When asked by Hakeem to explain why northerners should vote for him, Atiku replied,“What the average northerner needs is somebody who’s from the North and also understands that part of the country and has been able to build bridges across the country. 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.”

He went further to claim that he is versatile with every part of the country, assuring to form a government of national unity if elected as president.

“I have traversed the whole of this country, I know the whole of the country, I have built bridges across the country,” he added.

Among northern groups at the event inuse the Arewa Consultative Forum, Arewa House, Sir Ahmadu Bello Memorial Foundation, Northern Elders Forum, and Arewa Research and Development Project.