By Emmanuel Nduka
Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Atiku Abubakar, has said that northerners need a president who hails from the north.
Atiku, a former Vice President, spoke on Saturday at the interactive session of the Arewa townhall policy dialogue in Kaduna State.
The aspirant who hails from Adamawa State in the northeast, told his audience which included a significant percentage of persons of Hausa and Fulani extraction, that they don’t need an Igbo or Yoruba as president but “someone from the north”.
Atiku who boasted that he has cross-crossed Nigeria’s 36 states and understands their peculiarities and diversities, told the northerners to trust him with their votes, adding that he’s the most qualified to be president.
“I have traversed the whole of this country. I know the whole of this country. I have built bridges across this country. I think what the average northerner needs is somebody who is from the north, and who also understands the other parts of Nigeria and who has been able to build bridges across the rest of the country.
“This is what the northerner needs. He (northerner) doesn’t need a Yoruba candidate, or an Igbo candidate. This is what the northerner needs.
“I stand before you as a pan-Nigerian of northern origin,” he said.
