Atiku Group alarmed at Tinubu’s celebration of badness, shutting up opposition, dishonouring holy communion

The Atiku People United (APU) has urged Nigerians to take as a warning the commendation the All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, gave to Mallam Nasir El-Rufai for taking Kaduna State “from rotten to bad.”

Slamming the disdainful manner the APC flag-bearer also referred to the “poisoned Holy Communion” while facing the Arewa Joint Committee in Kaduna, APU Coordinating Leader, Hon. Rahman Owokoniran, submitted that an earlier speech in which Tinubu told opposition persons to “shut up” reflected the despotic manner in which the former Governor controlled Lagos politics like an Emperor, without consideration for alternative arguments and without providing a level playing field.

According to APU, Tinubu’s rotten-to-bad remark must be seen in the same light as President Muhammadu Buhari, who lived up to his words of taking Nigeria from "top to bottom," with seven years of APC misgovernment that has left the country reeling from socio-economic degeneration, frightening insecurity and colossal debts.

The APU statement said: “What Tinubu has said is that APC would turn Nigeria’s already rotten situation under his party into a worse one. It is now left for Nigerians to decide whether they want to have another four years of badness and suffering under APC. Simply put, under APC, there is no light at the end of this tunnel of despair and maladministration. Nigerians, be warned!

“Nigerians must decide if they want to hand over their affairs to a party whose flag-bearer gives accolades to a Governor who took a state ‘from rotten to bad.’ Nothing can be good about bad. For a party candidate to celebrate badness, therefore, is highly questionable.

“The hollow damage control attempted by Tinubu’s handlers that he suffered a Freudian Slip does not fool anybody, it simply worsens matters. Then just the following moment he went to badmouth the Holy Communion in a rather insensitive manner annoying to Christians.

“Should we submit the sensitive office of President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to such a man? For crying out loud, this is a 200 million-strong population, the largest Black nation on earth! Is this the best that Nigeria can produce with all our competent, erudite and world-class achievers?

“Fortunately, Nigerians have a choice of voting for the truly nationalistic, progressive and excellent ticket of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and Governor Arthur Ifeanyi Okowa, the true unifiers of Nigeria, with track records of selfless service.”

Owokoniran, South-West Zonal Secretary PDP, said the fact that the APC Presidential Candidate celebrated El-Rufai was even more curious, considering the fact that the APC Governor’s tenure had been laden with crisis and scandals.

He said: “Even more surprising is what the APC Presidential Candidate says is worthy of celebrating in Governor El-Rufai’s seven years of administering Kaduna. This is a Governor who upset the delicate balance of Kaduna’s ethno-religious makeup and imposed a Muslim-Muslim ticket. That insensitive Kaduna model must have been the motivation for Tinubu’s disrespectful and insensitive adoption of a Muslim-Muslim ticket in a pluralistic country like Nigeria.

“El-Rufai is a Governor who described kidnapping and banditry as mere business and these evils can be seen flourishing in Kaduna and indeed all over Nigeria under APC.

“The APC government in Kaduna State is overseeing the worst levels of insecurity with killings going on every day, so much so that today, it has become difficult to travel between Kaduna and neighbouring Abuja.”

The APC chieftain said Nigerians must choose right.

Owokoniran submitted: “To be forewarned is to be forearmed. With Tinubu, what you see is what you get. So don’t expect anything different.”

Honourable Rahman Owokoniran

Coordinator Leader, Atiku People United (APU)