Former VIce President and PDP presidential candidate Atiku Abubkar has said little about the on-going debate on Ruga Settlement policy the federal government just suspended following outcries from Nigerians.
What Atiku, also a Fulani, said on social media–No north no South; the PDP position is my position–was even screwed out of him by his party man.
Femi Fani-Kayode , a PDP loyalist, and former Minister of Aviation, might have forced the Atiku into whatever position he took on the matter.
Hours before Atiku’s statement on the national issue, Fani-Kayode, had put him on the spot.
“I have 3 questions for @atiku, the man who I believe won the 2019 presidential election,” Fani-Kayode tweeted.
“1. What is your position on RUGA?
“2. Why have you not said one word about it?
“3. What is your position on the threat and 30-day ultimatum made by Arewa youths against southerners?”
The Ruga policy and the touted Fulanisation agenda have made many of the northern elite careful in airing their views.
Some have even had to respond to former President Olusegun Obasanjo, a critic of President Muhammadu Buhari, who coined the world recently.
Fani-Kayode and others in the south have roundly condemned the initiative, its suspension, and the threat from the north, amny already spoiling for war.
The former minister might have been disappointed with Atiku’s neutral position, having expected the PDP candidate to have taken a more anti-Fulani and harder line on that.