A FORMER vice president and, now, presidential aspirant on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, has promised to unify the country if elected to rule the country in 2023.
Atiku made the promise during an interactive session with PDP delegates in Rivers State.
He said the APC government under the leadership of President Muhammadu Buhari had, by its actions, caused disunity among Nigerians and promoted insecurity.
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“Can you govern without uniting people and bringing peace? It is very important,” he queried, adding, “today, we have found ourselves in a similar situation because the APC government has been a one-sided government and, therefore, there is disunity and because of disunity, now we are facing insecurity all over the country.”
Atiku stressed that giving a sense of belonging to every religious and ethnic group would be his priority, as contained in his declaration speech.
He said, “That was why in my declaration speech, I said the number one item for me is to make sure I unify this country.
“I will give a sense of belonging to each and every part of this country; I’ll give a sense of belonging to every ethnic group; I’ll give a sense of belonging to every religious group. After unifying the country, then we tackle the insecurity.”
He emphasised the need to tackle insecurity ravaging the country, adding tackling insecurity would pave way for economic prosperity.
“Unless we restore law and order and peace, we cannot do anything. After restoring security generally, we will now go to the economy. We have the experience. We took Nigeria from the bottom to the highest economy in Africa.
“Now, APC has taken us down to the bottom, top to bottom. That is why I just can’t understand how somebody can vote for APC in this country because we have suffered and we are suffering,” he said.
The former vice president called for unity among members and supporters of the PDP, saying it is only through unity that the party can emerge victorious across all levels in the 2023 general elections.
He urged the delegates, “PDP must unite to win this time. It does not matter the outcome of the convention. Let us unite and win. We have been in opposition for eight years, we cannot afford to be in opposition for another eight years.”
'Niyi worked with The ICIR as an Investigative Reporter and Fact-checker from 2020 till September 2022. You can shoot him an email via [email protected]. You can as well follow him on Twitter via @niyi_oyedeji.