2027: If elected, Yorubas will dominate policy making – Atiku

Former Vice President and presidential hopeful, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, has assured that the Yoruba people will hold a top place in his policy-making and governance agenda if elected president in 2027.

Atiku, a chieftain of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), made the pledge while praising the Yoruba as “one of the finest species of the human race.”

In a statement issued by his media consultant, Kola Johnson, Atiku described himself as fortunate to have married from the Yoruba ethnic group, noting that his bond with the people goes beyond politics and is deeply rooted in family ties.

“It is also for this reason that the interest of the Yorubas will always occupy a topmost place in my policy making and governance if by the special Grace of Allah, I am lucky to be president in 2027.

“Therefore, the fear that my ascension to presidency might lead to Hausa/Fulani domination over Yorubas or other ethnic group does not only arise, but also absolutely unfounded because the entire Yoruba stock are my larger extended family and in-laws,” he said.

Atiku stated that he got married to his first wife, Titi, a Yoruba woman in the 1970s and they have four Yoruba children, saying she is now over 75 years and they are still together.

“My children with Titi sometimes called me “Baba rere” meaning ‘good father’. I am extremely in love with my children and serve as a good father to them as I urge every father to do the same to their children.

“And besides, Yorubas are so sophisticated and highly educated that you can only toy with them at your own peril,” Atiku stated further.

“My ljesha-born Yoruba wife is more than a wife to me. Aptly put, she is my Jewel of Inestimable value and anybody who knows about my family, even from a distance can easily tell you this.

“This has indeed been the reason why both in my private and public life, Yorubas rank amongst my most intimate friends and associates. Therefore I have never joked with them,” he said.

According to Atiku, “Anyone who knows me will tell you with all sincerity, that as a person I am naturally a highly detribalized person. Even before I could ever venture into politics, I flowed easily and effortlessly with people of diverse tribes, ethnicity, religion and whatever sectarian differences.

“This is why immediately I opted into politics without being immodest, I was essentially like a politician without borders, in terms of my absolutely detribalised outlook. Call it a statesman if you would not mind.”

“But frankly speaking however, I cannot but confess that my marital union to a Yoruba wife had indeed gone a long way in endearing the generality of the Yorubas in my heart.

“I see the larger Yoruba regional landscape, not only as my home just as I equally see the extended Yoruba tribes’ men and women as an extended larger family, so the question of Hausa/Fulani domination does not arise at all.”