2023: Presidential candidate that drag ethnicity into campaign -By Azuka Onwuka

If there is any presidential candidate and his supporters who are openly dragging ethnicity into this campaign, it is the Tinubu camp. If there is any presidential candidate who has employed foul and base language, it is also Tinubu.

Of the top contenders, it is only Tinubu that openly said that this is the turn of the Yorubas and his turn to rule Nigeria.

Yesterday, Gov. Sanwo-Olu of Lagos openly asked the Yoruba people to vote for Tinubu. No other governor has made such an ethnic announcement openly for any other candidate.

While individual celebrities were choosing the candidates to support, the Yoruba actors came out as a group to support Tinubu. Other groups have avoided such a group endorsement because they know it does not look nice.

Last week, some governors of the Southwest (Fayemi, Akeredolu, Sanwo-Olu, plus Fayose) took it upon themselves to visit Rivers State to woo Wike to support Tinubu. No other group of governors have done a thing like this for a candidate from their ethnic group. The Southwest governors could have tried to cloak it as an APC project by going with a few governors from the North and other parts of the South instead of openly tribalizing it.

The message the Southwest governors sent out is that Tinubu is a Yoruba project instead of a Nigerian project that he should be.

It is only Tinubu that ignored the need for religious inclusion and chose the same-faith ticket in a multi-religious country because he believes that it will guarantee him victory.

It is only Tinubu that has been making foul comments against other parties and candidates right from the day he won the primaries.

This does not look nice. This is not how to play politics in a multi-ethnic, multi-religious country, especially one that has faced repeated crises.

The irony is that many of those who openly engage in this ethnic and religious politics or justify it will be the first to accuse others of ethnic and religious bias.

Based on justice and equity, if there is a zone that deserves to produce the next president of Nigeria, it is the Southeast. But I will be appalled if Southeast Guild of Actors Guild or Southeast Lawyers or Southeast Stand-up Comedians come out to endorse Peter Obi. Peter Obi has refused to campaign based on ethnicity or religion. He has avoided using any harsh word against anyone or party, including those who have said unkind things against him.

Atiku has not engaged in any ethnic or religious campaign, neither have governors or groups from his zone come out openly to endorse him or urge their kinfolks to support him.

If we indeed believe in creating a new Nigeria, we cannot continue to do things the same way they were done in the 1950s or 70s that led us to nowhere.