Atiku Abubakar, former vice-president, says northerners should vote for him and not for a Yoruba or Igbo candidate.
Bola Tinubu, presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), is Yoruba, while Peter Obi, presidential candidate of the Labour Party is Igbo.
Atiku, who is the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), said this on Saturday at an interactive session of the Arewa townhall policy dialogue in Kaduna.
Atiku, who is from Adamawa in the north-east, told his audience which included Hausa and Fulani persons, that they do not need an Igbo or Yoruba as president but “someone from the north”.
“I have traversed the whole of this country,” he said.
“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.”
