2023: PDP has relegated south to worthless slaves status – Fani-Kayode

Femi Fani-Kayode, former aviation minister, has hit back at Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa, Delta State governor and vice-presidential candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), over his comment on the Muslim-Muslim ticket of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

The Delta State governor, had on Tuesday, during a summit by the Northern Christian Youth Assembly with the theme, “Unifying Nigeria: The role of Northern Christian Youths and Women”, which held in Abuja, kicked against the Muslim-Muslim ticket, saying it “is not a good thing to do, particularly in a troubled nation as we are in today.

However, responding to Okowa’s remarks in a statement on Wednesday, Fani-Kayode, a chieftain of the ruling party, advised the Delta governor to be more worried about his party giving its presidential ticket to Atiku Abubakar, a northerner, when according to him, it’s the turn of the south to produce the country’s president.

According to the former minister, by giving its presidential ticket to Atiku, the PDP has relegated the south to the status of worthless slaves who are there to make up the numbers.

“The message the PDP has sent to the entire country by their choice of a northern presidential flagbearer is that as far as their party is concerned, southerners are nothing but worthless slaves who are there just to make up the numbers and help to win an election,” he said.

“They are there just to be used and dumped.

“They are there as nothing but the biblical “hewers of the wood” and “drawers of the water.

“Thankfully the APC, as progressive as ever, has sent an opposite message: that whether you are from the north or the south, as long as you are a member or a leader of the party, you shall enjoy equal rights and equal opportunities as everyone else regardless of where you are from in the country.”

Defending the APC Muslim-Muslim ticket, Fani-Kayode argued that “the APC has killed and buried the notion that southerners are slaves whilst the PDP wants to resurrect it.

“It is left for each of us to make a choice between the two but my choice is for freedom and equality rather than bondage and slavery.

“If the little sacrifice we have to make and the price we have to pay for that is a Muslim/Muslim ticket in order to ensure victory, then so be it.

“This is especially so given the fact that in the south-west where our candidate comes from we see religion as a personal issue and not a political one.”