Ndigbo Are Wiser Now – Labour Party Chief Taunts Atiku

• Says ‘old and outdated political tricks’ won’t work again

BY ONYEKACHUKWU IBEZIM – The Labour Party (LP) has cautioned Nigeria’s former Vice President and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, to refrain from deploying “old and outdated political tricks” to hoodwink Ndigbo into garnering their support for his 2023 presidential ambition.

For the Labour Party National Vice Chairman (South-East), Chief Innocent Okeke, the PDP’s flag bearer’s sincerity of purpose towards the South-East zone will be best demonstrated by withdrawing from the race if truly he is a “unifier” as being touted by political sycophants

“Atiku is employing the old and outdated political tricks on Ndigbo. It won’t work this time around”, Chief Okeke said while reacting to the Wazirin Adamawa’s recent comments while campaigning in Awka, the Anambra State capital.

The former Vice President was widely reported as promising that his presidency presents the stepping stone for the South-East to produce Nigeria’s President after 2023.

However, the Labour Party Chieftain said, “This trick won’t work this time around. 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.”

Chief Okeke said it has become imperative for the former Number Two man to abandon the “old and outdated political tricks” because “The people are awake and tired of playing second fiddle in a country where they are significant stakeholders”.

According to him; “While a Northerner, 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 that it is the undisputable right of Ndigbo; why does he want to change the goalpost in the middle of a match? This is unacceptable.”

Further amplifying the need for justice and equity in the nation’s political life, the Labour Party stalwart said; “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?”

Insisting that truth must be told to those flaunting and perpetuating injustice in the polity, Chief Okeke pointedly said; “Atiku should be advised to withdraw from the presidential race, work on himself, and be purged of the old conspiracies that he and his cohorts have been using to teach the younger ones hate and disunity. This is the only practical way to be a unifier”.