Peter Obi, the Vice Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, on Saturday urged Kaduna State governor, Nasir El-Rufai, to stop making inflammatory statements capable of inciting hate among Nigerians.
Obi was reacting to a statement credited to El-Rufai in his (El Rufai’s) twitter handle, where he called Obi ‘a tribal bigot.’
The governor tweeted that Obi stopped him from moving around Anambra State during the governorship election in the state in 2010.
But Obi while speaking with journalists on the matter at a youth programme in Nnewi, Anambra State, on Saturday, said he was shocked to read such an outburst of hate from El-Rufai, especially when ‘the statement came unprovoked.’
He said, “This is suggesting that it was what he sat down to think of rather than thinking about how to solve the many problems plaguing the country.
“What Governor Nasir El-Rufai said about me has been brought to my attention. I believe that as we grow older and are saddled with more responsibilities, we are expected to become circumspect in our thinking and avoid recklessness in our speeches and utterances.
“How does the circumstance he referred to relate to bigotry to warrant such a label? All I do for people like El Rufai is to pray for them and encourage them to concentrate on doing those things that will better Nigerians rather than engage in hate speeches that will divide and destroy the country.’’
