Osita Chidoka: No need for Atiku to apologise over ‘north needs northerner’ comment

Osita Chidoka, a former minister of aviation, says Atiku Abubakar, presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), was “misinterpreted” on his comment that northerners need a president from the north.

Chidoka spoke on Tuesday in an interview with Channels Television.

Last Saturday, during an interactive session of the Arewa townhall policy dialogue in Kaduna, Abubakar told his audience, who were mostly northerners, that they don’t need an Igbo or Yoruba as president but “someone from the north”.

The comment of the former vice-president had elicited varied reactions.

Speaking on Abubakar’s comment, Chidoka, a member of the PDP presidential campaign council, said the former vice-president does not need to apologise.

“The thing I like about politics is how people can stand up on something – a statement is made, it is misread, misinterpreted and turned around to make up for campaigning. It is politics,” he said.

“Alhaji Abubakar was addressing northerners and he was explaining the need for Nigeria to have a pan-Nigerian president. He said ‘I’m a northerner like you but I’m pan-Nigerian – I have built bridges across the country’.

“Why is anybody not quoting that part of the statement? Why is anybody not talking about the fact that he has built bridges across the country for 35 years? He said ‘I’m a pan-Nigerian and that what we need now is not an Igbo, Yoruba or Hausa president for that matter; that what we need now is a Nigerian president’.

“I think we need to move beyond the political gimmick that goes on when people say one thing, we turn it the other way round and we use it for political ends.

“The point he is making is a very clear point; the point that we need a Nigerian president who will unify the country, understand the issues, and be able to solve them.

“I don’t think that it is a statement that warrants any apology or discussion.”