As expected, Atiku Abubakar, Nigeria’s former Vice President, will hold the PDP presidential flag in the 2023 election. As I monitored this all day, when Aminu Tambuwal, governor of Sokoto State, asked his delegates to support him, I knew Atiku had a strong chance. Without Tambuwal, only Nyesom Wike, governor of River State, was remaining since former Senate President, Bukola Saraki, was not really there. (Atiku, Wike, Saraki received respectively 371, 237 and 70 votes).
I had predicted that Atiku would be the 2019 nominee, and even last week, I noted that it was for him, for 2023, when the party refused to zone it. From my permutation, there was really no reason NOT to zone it, if Atiku was not interested! PDP designed everything for Atiku.
In APC, I had noted that Bola Tinubu would get the ticket and would likely pick the governor of Ebonyi State, Engr David Umahi. In the Oct 2018 piece, I had noted that Engr Umahi will win governorship in Ebonyi but will decamp to APC within months: “The present governor of Ebonyi state will likely be his running mate. Engr David Umahi will win with PDP in 2019 but will decamp to APC shortly.”
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That APC postulation will change now. With Atiku holding it for PDP, even Bola Tinubu’s candidate is severely wounded. (I had assumed, naively, that PDP would maintain its zoning policy of North and South.) So PDP is going cold in the Southeast but may be strong in Southsouth as Atiku will likely pick Wike as his running mate.
Something big will happen to the APC ticket now. They will need to defend North and also play offense in the South since it is evident that most voters will move PDP in the north.
From all angles, Tinubu will have to make a decision: expect him to call Peter Obi, the most popular politician in Southeast, for suggestions. I expect a third force because there are many victims that will go on a political revenge here.
Nigeria’s former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, has again emerged the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Mr Abubakar defeated 12 other candidates in a keenly contested presidential primary election held at the Moshood Abiola Stadium in Abuja on Saturday.
Of the over 763 ballots at the election, he polled 371 votes while his closest challenger, Governor of River State, Nyesom Wike, came a distant third with his 237 votes.
Nigeria’s former Senate President, Bukola Saraki, scored 70 votes to come a distant third while the Governor of Bauchi, Bala Muhammed, came fourth with 20 votes.
While Atiku’s victory at the Abuja stadium Velodrome was his second successive attempt, it also marked his fifth shot at the presidency. He has had other unsuccessful contests for the seat under both the All Progressives Congress (APC) and his current party, the PDP.
The Adamawa-born politician also secured the ticket of the PDP in 2019 but lost at the general elections to the incumbent, President Muhammadu Buhari of the APC.
The former vice-president will again face whoever emerges from the forthcoming presidential primaries of the APC.
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Comment 1: SE do not have voting strength. Their total votes is equivalent to just one state’s votes(Kano/Rivers). The highest total votes of SE was in 2019 and was almost equivalent to the votes of Kano/Rivers. Moreover, looking at the handwriting on the wall, Atiku is picking someone from SS as VP.
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Call Obi so Tinubu will be VP or what?
I am looking at Labour Party merging with another party. Understand that they have 9 months to election and many things can happen. I do not believe that Tinubu will be happy if he does not get APC ticket. He may like to leave and that is where Obi comes in. That does not mean that Tinubu will be on a ticket. He may just leave APC and retire with “dignity of revenge.”
I hope the APC makes its own mistake later this week, so that we can send both parties down together. No need to give them ‘expo’ anymore, let them just make one wrong move and join PDP on the other side.
When people yammer on ‘political structure’ I laugh, because nothing like ‘political structure’ in national election here, the ‘structures’ are built on the go. Wike used dollars to magically built his own ‘structure’, even when he’s incapable of winning a single state in a national election outside his home state, but his ‘political structure’ brought him within a touching distance. Tuale!
Atiku, the original serial loser, who has never really won anything, he even got less votes in his zone in 2019 than in southeast, but somehow the PDP thinks he has such a reliable ‘political structure’ to win, smokes.
The APC is now more confused, once it dips its own leg further down the mud, we will help both parties to redraw the political map of national election in Nigeria.
Game on…
The 2023 elections remains a great a opportunity for us to weaken the power of the delegates who decide those who rule us in the country because they understand that money can answer to a lot of things.
I sincerely wish that the masses can for once be aware of their powers to demand an enabling economy where they can a beautiful country drivers by leaders of conscience.
Our hope is the Labour Party if Peter contests and like Oga Francis mentioned, the masses are strong enough to put Peter Obi in power.
PDP & APC don’t mean well for Nigeria and Nigerians. Atiku just like Buhari has nothing to offer – their demonstration of desperation for power is a red flag.
APC will be worse off with Tinubu, and even with a northern candidate APC is still on the verge. My wish is to see Peter Obi raising a formidable force at LP and save this country. Nigeria is bleeding and Nigerians are obviously tired of monsters called PDP & APC. Parties who use American dollars to buy hungry and blind delegates to vote them for destruction of our country. Those are delegates are the same as terrorists and bandits.