Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, has done nothing for northerners and will be retired to Dubai in 2023, says Kashim Shettima, vice-presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

“Atiku Abubakar is like a father to me and I hold him in high esteem. But he is a political tourist who is only in this country’s electoral circle and we are going to retire him back to Dubai to go and relax,” Mr Kashim said.

He added: “I am from the north-east – he is from the north-east. Atiku cannot point to three projects that he brought to the north-east or to Northern Nigeria for the eight years that he served as the vice president. He cannot show us three people that he has mentored.”

The former Borno governor said this on Sunday when he led the APC National Integrity Movement in Abuja.

Mr Shettima’s regional rhetoric runs contrary to Mr Atiku’s, who projects himself as a unifier, pan-Nigerian candidate with experience to lead the most populous African country. 

Before now, Mr Shettima had dismissed Labour Party’s presidential candidate, Peter Obi, as a structureless flagbearer who can only be president in the South-eastern part of the country.

“Nigeria is too big for him to handle. As far as I am concerned, he’s politically structureless with little or no experience to lead this country,” Mr Shettima said.

“Presidential position is not for the unprepared neither is it an all-comers’ affair. Peter Obi can only become a president in Igboland but definitely not in Nigeria,” he added.