The Presidential Candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, and his All Progressives Congress (APC) counterpart, Bola Tinubu, have visited the Emir of Zaria, Ahmed Bamalli, to seek his royal blessing for their ambition.
They visited the foremost traditional ruler at different times on Saturday.
Atiku, who was the first to visit the palace, is in Kaduna State ahead of his campaign rally holding on Monday in the state.
While Mr Tinubu visited the palace after attending the seventh edition of Kaduna Investment Forum.
Atiku was accompanied by the Director-General of the PDP Presidential Campaign, Governor Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto State, former governors of Adamawa and Niger States, Boni Haruna and Babangida Aliyu.
Some serving and former members of the National Assembly, among others, also accompanied Atiku on the royal visit.
While in Kaduna State, Atiku is billed to visit Kaduna city and Kafanchan, as well as attend an interractive session with presidential candidates organised by the Arewa Joint Committee in Kaduna.
He said the visit to the palace was to pay homage on the first class traditional ruler and seek his blessings on his ambition.
“My visit here is a home coming, but it has been a tradition of our campaign programmes to seek for the blessings, advice and guidance of our royal fathers.
“I’m also here to congratulate and rejoice with you on the conferment of national honour given to you by the president.
“With this visit, we hope to boost and strengthen our campaign activities geared towards national unity and development,” he said.
Earlier, Mr Tambuwal said as the party has commenced its political activities and required blessings from traditional leaders.
“By this, we hope to receive guidance and prayers to enable us succeed in our campaign activities,” said the PDP presidential campaign director-general.
Responding, Mr Bamalli advised politicians to play by the rules of the game and avoid utterance that may jeopardised national unity.
Mr Tinubu was accompanied by his host, Governor Nasir el-Rufai, and APC stalwarts.
He arrived the palace few hours after the departure of Atiku to Kaduna.
While apologising for his inability to attend Mr Bamalli’s coronation, Mr Tinubu, however, said he would make the palace his second home, especially when he becomes the next president of the country.
Earlier, Mr Nasir El-Rufai said even though it was the first time the APC presidential flagbearer visited the first class traditional ruler, it would be the beginning of many future visits to the palace.
He described Mr Tinubu as a person who has long pedigree and respect for the traditional institution.
Also, he added that part of the respect for traditional institutions made him visit the emir a few hours after his arrival for the seventh edition of Kaduna Investment Forum, insisting on visiting the palace to pay homage to the royal father.
“This is not a visit to start a campaign, it is a visit to consult you and tap from your wisdom and we will come back for a campaign visit, this is just a courtesy call.
“Having visited Kaduna, Asiwaju felt his visit was incomplete without paying homage to you,’’ Mr El-Rufai said.
Responding, Mr Bamalli appealed to politicians to work towards strengthening national unity throughout their electionering for the general elections in 2023.
“In the next few months, we will be approaching a difficult period of our coexistence; that is, we are getting into the political arena with a lot of politicking.
“I would like to take this liberty to request you to show maturity and experience as the former governor of Lagos State to play a vital role for a historic election.
“What we need at this point is the security of our country, improved economy and peaceful co-existence; the issue of division of Nigeria should be put aside,” the emir counselled.
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