The Bola Tinubu presidential spokesman for Southeast, Dr. Josef Onoh has told the Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar that his origin is more shrouded in secrecy than he (Atiku) claims against his All Progressives Congress (APC) counterpart.
Onoh spoke against Monday’s story by Atiku’s Special Assistant on public communications, Phrank Shaibu, who challenged Asiwaju Tinubu to disclose his real identity to Nigerians.
Responding to Atiku’s challenge, Onoh asked the PDP presidential candidate to remove the seal in his own eyes and answer ten questions about his masked Cameroonian origin before coming out to make a blanket challenge.
The Ten questions Onoh posed to Atiku include: How come Atiku Abubakar does not have one paternal uncle; How come he does not have one maternal uncle; How come he does not have one paternal Aunt; How come he does not have one maternal Aunt; How come he does not have one brother or sister from either his paternal side or maternal side and how come he does not have one cousin either from his paternal or maternal lineages.
The other questions he challenged Atiku to answer are: How come he does not have nephews and nieces anywhere in the world; If he is from Wurno in Sokoto state, why did he adopt a hometown in Jigawa state; What is his connections with the house of the District Head of Kojoli in Jada LGA of Adamawa State and why Atiku changed his polling unit from his actual hometown of Jada to Jimeta, Yola?
Tracing Atiku’s origin, Onoh said that despite the PDP candidate’s own different versions of his origin, he presumably came from Jada town in Jada local government area of Adamawa state; the only child of his parents after his only sister died in infancy and whose father was a Fulani trader and farmer, his mother the second wife of his father which presupposes that he probably had step brothers and sisters who nobody has ever heard or seen them.
He said that there is suspicion on Atiku’s claim of Fulani origin whereas he came from Jada was formerly in Ganye LGA and was regarded as the mother of the whole Chamba tribe, an African ethnic group found in northeast Nigeria and neighbouring parts of north Cameroon.
The Chamba people were one of the targets of Fulani Jihads in the 18th and 19th centuries, who were enslaved while many of them migrated southwards into the mountains. “So there is a question mark on the posturing by Atiku Abubakar that his father was Fulani and I ask, what a Fulani man was supposedly doing in the bosom of Chamba people,” Onoh queried.
He insisted that Atiku’s father was never a Fulani man but from one of the mountains in Cameroon and a trader who came to Ganye for trading en route Kano.
“The historical account states that it was on one of those trade trips that he met Atiku Abubakar’s mother, Aisha Kande. The consequence of their meeting resulted in Atiku Abubakar even without the knowledge of his father. It was also said after a while Atiku Abubakar’s father suffered some business misfortunes and consequently stopped coming to Ganye. And that made it impossible for Aisha Kande to intimate him of the birth of his son,” Onoh narrated.
The Tinubu campaign spokesman wondered if it is possible for Atiku Abubakar not to have any siblings, even in the closeness of a stepbrother or sister, cousin, or any other extended relatives, stating that Atiku’s mystery of origin makes him wonder if Atiku is a Nigerian without any known or seen relative.
“It has been just him and his mother, and he took the comedy to another level by also saying that his mother’s only sister was also childless.”
He faulted Atiku’s claim that he was raised in Kojoli whereas throughout all his years in government he has impacted on Ganye or Kojoli where he claims he comes from, noting that those from Kojoli have said it severally that Atiku’s father has no roots in Kojoli, even as Atiku himself does not know his father or what he looks like.
Onoh recalled that former President Olusegun Obasanjo had described Atiku’s background as shadowy and one with a propensity to corruption, inability to say and stick to the truth, poor judgments, reliance on marabouts, lacks transparency, his trust in money to buy his way out on all issues and his readiness to sacrifice morality, integrity, propriety truth and national interest for self and selfish interest, which he said lends credence to the fact that indeed there is something about the nationality of Atiku Abubakar.
“If indeed Atiku Abubakar is a Nigerian, there would have been at least traces of his paternal relatives, but in this instance, he has been all alone because his relatives and siblings are scattered across the Anglophone part of Cameroon.
It’s only in Nigeria can a Cameroonian- Nigerian by referendum be running for president, which is a clear case of barrow pusher investigating the owner of the barrow. Nigeria is truly the giant of Africa,” Onoh said. Ok
Source: The Guardian
