Bashir Ahmad, an aide to President Muhammadu Buhari, has stated that northerners will never vote for Peter Obi, the Labour Party’s candidate, due to their dislike of him. Mr Ahmad made this statement in a tweet written in Hausa language, which he used to conceal the meaning of his message from non-Hausa speaking audiences. He claimed that Mr Obi dislikes northerners, and therefore, they will not support his presidential bid.
In a tweet he made in Hausa language to conceal the meaning of his message from non-Hausa speaking audience, Mr Bashir described Mr Obi as one who dislikes northerners. A translation of Mr Bashir’s Hausa tweet reads: “Since Mr. Peter has clearly shown that he doesn’t like us, so we don’t like him either. If he stands for election 1000 times, we won’t vote for him 1000 times. We thank God for always showing us his character clearly.”
Mr Obi had promised to rescue the country, especially Northern Nigeria, from poverty on several occasions. However, Mr Ahmad’s statement suggests that his message has not resonated with northerners.
“Beyond regaining our mandate, I am committed to lifting people out of poverty and I remain committed to transforming Nigeria starting from the North to every part of the nation,” Mr Obi said in a series of tweets on Tuesday.
This is not the first time Mr Ahmad has played the ethnic card, as he had previously promised to influence a court decision in favour of his kinsman, Yunusa Dahiru (Yellow), who was imprisoned for child trafficking and sexual exploitation of Ese Oruru.
A Twitter user, Hammad Yusuf Saleh, had in a tweet asked Mr Bashir to intervene after a Yenagoa division of the Federal High Court had sent Dahiru to 26 years imprisonment for child trafficking and sexual exploitation of Ese Oruru.
Replying the tweet in Hausa, Mr Bashir said “my brother, I do not have the power to do anything against the judgement of the court, but I will try to contact those whom I think are capable.”
