Celebrated Actor and Chieftain of the Labour Party (LP), Mr Kenneth Okonkwo is of the opinion that the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (LP), Atiku Abubakar, is a failed politician whose only aim at this moment is to destabilize Nigeria’s democracy.
Mr Okonkwo’s comment is predicated upon recent statements made by Alhaji Atiku during an interactive session of the Arewa Townhall Policy Dialogue in Kaduna.
At the forum, Atiku told those present that at the moment, “what an average northerner needs is somebody from the north who understands other parts of Nigeria and who has been able to build bridges across the country.”
He went on to ask all northerners to vote for him in 2023, and not for a “Yoruba or a Igbo candidate,” a statement which has since stirred great debate regarding ethnic sentiments and the quest to save Nigeria from implosion.
In his reaction, Mr Okonkwo who on Thursday was a guest on Channels Television’s Politics Today, said Atiku should have by now be disqualified by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for going to the north to make such a “genocidal statement”.
“Atiku Abubakar went to the north and said northerners should support only the people from the north, not Yoruba, not Igbo, that is ethnic profiling.
“Atiku knows that he has failed, what he is trying to do now is to make sure he destroys our democracy after he has failed and he should be called to order.
“INEC should be implementing Section 97 of the Electoral Act now on Atiku because what he has done is a criminal offence (trying to profile ethnic and religious groups.
“I have always said he is very unfit to be president and not only that he is unfit, he is now a threat to our democracy,” the lawyer argued.
He said his party’s presidential candidate unlike some other contestants in 2023 presidential race does not play his politics with any ethnic bias.
Mr Okonkwo asserted that other major players in the 2023 election are already playing the ethnic card, but Obi remains the one candidate who who is nationalistic in his approach and advocates for a united Nigeria where true transformation is possible.