2023 Presidency: Why Atiku is not a threat to APC – Katsina gov’ship candidate

The governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Katsina State, Dikko Umaru Radda, has said the emergence of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar as candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the 2023 election is not a threat to his party because Atiku has become a serial loser. Atiku had last weekend […]

The governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Katsina State, Dikko Umaru Radda, has said the emergence of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar as candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the 2023 election is not a threat to his party because Atiku has become a serial loser.

Atiku had last weekend emerged as PDP presidential candidate for the 2023 poll after losing in 2019 as candidate of the same opposition party.

In an interview with newsmen on Tuesday in Abuja, Radda said Atiku’s emergence does not pose any challenge to the APC because the ruling party is already in the control of 22 of the 36 states of the federation.

He argued that the APC has better chances of winning the election, adding that the party would field a credible candidate who would traunce Atiku in a free and fair contest in 2023.

The Katsina APC governorship candidate also said the defections in Katsina prior to the primaries would not affect his chances of winning, stressing that he would put a mechanism in place to bring the aggrieved defectors back to APC fold.

“I don’t think it is a major threat because Atiku has been running. He has run elections for many years. And I think this is the 6th time most especially for the presidency. I think attention has always been there. But APC is in government now. We have 22 states that are under the control of the APC. And, I want you to wait till next week and see the person that will emerge as the presidential candidate of the party.”

“I believed the party will bring somebody who will match Atiku from the beginning to the end. And then you will understand you can’t play politics of regionalism, ethnicity and religion under whatever guise anymore. Nigerians are becoming wiser now; what they are looking for is competence, people who can deliver.

“People who can give Nigerians the kind of leadership they need. I don’t need a Hausa man to be president. What I need in the North is to have the security of life and property. If he is an Igbo man or Yoruba, that will bring peace and security to my people, why not him? Why must it be a Hausa man? Or a Muslim? Why must he be a Christian?

“We must go above board in Nigeria and try to think rationally and be able to bring leaders who have the capacity to transform the Nigerian society, increase the economic activities in the country, provide employment for our teaming youths and then get the educational sector to perform better,” he said.