The Elder statesman, Tanko Yakasai has called on Nigerians to condemn and oppose the call on Northerners by the Emir of Daura, Alhaji Umar Farooq Umar to vote for their own in the 2023 general elections.
Yakasai in a statement he personally signed and titled “MY REACTION TO EMIR OF DAURA’S CODED CAMPAIGN MESSAGE FOR PDP” that was made available to newsmen in Kano, said it is expedient to oppose the dangerous attempt to turn back the history of the country whereby some traditional rulers will be used by some politicians as tools to promote negative trend in political campaigns.
He however cautioned the first-class emir to resist being used to destroy healthy political systems in Nigeria by reinventing tribal politics.
The elder statesman alleged that comment by former minister of Agriculture, Alhaji Sani Zango Daura that urged Northerners to vote for their own in the forthcoming elections and was subsequently re-echoed by the first class emir was “not only divisive, unhealthy, but outdated.”
According to him, “I have noticed an attempt by some political players trying to revive the already discarded practice where some politicians were using some misguided traditional rulers to use their exalted positions to engage into political campaigns to denigrate some parties in order to undermine their standing in the society.
“I see here a conscious effort by these two foremost Northern leaders to destroy a pan-Nigerian dream where every citizen can’t nurse a legitimate ambition.
“Such negative tendencies and practices should be condemned by all well-meaning Nigerians, while it is also expedient to oppose this dangerous attempt to turn back the history of our country whereby some traditional rulers will be used by some politicians as tools to promote negative trends in political campaigns.
“Although, I am now an old man, I still have some strengths to fight such negative tendencies from raising their ugly heads in our present-day healthy political atmosphere.
“I urge all Nigerians to join me in this fight in the interest of peaceful pursuit of any political ambition,” Yakasai however stated.
