A perceptive pundit, Majeed Dahiru has explained how the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is enabling the likelihood of former president Goodluck Jonathan winning the 2023 presidential election under the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
This, according to him, is because all indications point to PDP zoning its presidential ticket to the North while APC is heading the opposite direction. He stressed that when the present mood of the country is added into the mix then a Jonathan presidency would be embraced by most Nigerians.
Speaking as a guest on AIT breakfast show, Kaakaki, monitored by TrackNews Online Dahiru , “The APC is strategically positioned to zone their presidential ticket to the South. For example, those contesting for the APC chairmanship are mostly from the North.
“There is no APC governor from the North, except the governor of Kogi State that has indicated interest for the presidency. The reverse is the case in the PDP. Those contesting for the party’s presidential ticket are from the North while the party chairmanship is being struggled for by politicians from the southern part of the country.
“If you place this side by side the need to shift power to the South, you will realize that the Jonathan candidacy may come in as a compromise.
“The problem is with the PDP which is not ready to shift power to the South. The PDP is likely to run with a Northern candidate because they want to take advantage of the Northern demography which Hakeem Baba talked about. That is where the PDP will make a strategic blunder and play into the hands of APC and APC will then convert the mood in the country to electoral advantage.”
The newspaper columnist went on to state that the only way a Jonathan candidacy in 2023 can be thwarted is if PDP fielded a southerner so that Nigerians can then have a clear choice between the two political parties.
He asserted that the PDP will be acting very simplistic by thinking that the North would always queue behind a northern candidate, reminding the party that it is only President Muhammadu Buhari that has the capacity to garner the majority of northern votes in an election.
Dahiru disclosed that this influence is such that the Southerner who Buhari anoints to succeed him can defeat even a presidential candidate from Katsina State in the North.
His words, “If the PDP makes the mistake of floating a northern candidate, the entire South and those kicking against Hakeem Baba-Ahmed’s statement will definitely gravitate towards the APC. This is because the APC would have shown more sensitivity to the need for power shift between the North and the South.
“It is only Muhammadu Buhari in the history of Nigeria that has been able to garner the majority of northern votes because he of what he represents. There has been no northerner before or after Buhari that commands such following; not Atiku, not Tambuwal, not Kwankwaso.
“Northerners will vote for any candidate that President Muhammadu Buhari anoints from the South. Any candidate that Buhari and those around him anoints from the South will win any northerner including somebody from Katsina that is presented by the PDP.”
