Atiku counsels Buhari, APC on how to campaign

Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has counseled President Muhammadu Buhari and the All Progressives Congress (APC) to campaign on issues and not descend to insults and name calling in the build up to the 2019 general elections.

Atiku, who is the presidential candidate of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the 2019 presidential election, said if the campaigns are not conducted with care, it may turn around to divide and hurt the country.

The former Vice President said this in a statement by the Spokesman of his campaign organisation on Tuesday.

The statement reads: “We need to restate as directed by His Excellency, Atiku Abubakar, Presidential candidate of PDP that the 2019 election should be issue based, devoid of slandering and name calling.

“We hold the view that unguarded narrative hurts the country and further divides us as a people.

“Some of the consequences of previous mismanaged campaign efforts are perhaps the reason why there is little or no internal cohesion with its attendant security challenges.

“Elections comes every four years in our country and if great effort is not taken, we could hurt the country and its people needlessly and invariably our democracy.

Read also: I’ll campaign ‘heavily’ for Buhari, Sanwo-Olu— Ambode

“We have to sign up to this ideals, we can campaign without recourse to hate speech, libels, lies, undue criminalization of people and each other.

“On our part, we have signed up to running an issue-based campaign and if it is not too hard for the Muhammadu Buhari administration and the APC to understand, we call on you to do the same.

“There is greater value in doing so. Nigeria is the most populous black nation on earth and we owe it to ourselves and the black race to be above board.”

It would be recalled that Atiku had counseled his supporters in a tweet recently to counter insults and scandal mongering from APC supporters with facts and not descend into the gutter with them.

 

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