The Nigerian journalist, Babajide Otitoju, has explained why the presidential flagbearer of the PDP, Atiku Abubakar, may find it easier to pick his running mate than Bola Tinubu, the flagbearer of the APC. In his interview, Babajide mentioned the northern zone that could provide more votes for Tinubu than the south-west and other geopolitical zones.
Addressing the topic, Babajide said, “It is hard for a Yoruba Christian to find the right number of votes from northern Nigeria to make him president.” He may have to look in the direction of the big voting blocs in the northern part of Nigeria. The two biggest voting blocs in the North are the North-East and the North-West. The North-West is clearly the biggest geopolitical zone in our country in terms of available votes and electoral history. Even in cases where the South-West has more registered voters than the North-West, the North-West always delivers more votes on election day than any geopolitical zone.
He continued, “A Yoruba Muslim from the South-West is thinking of winning, and he knows how vital the votes from the North-West and the North-East are.” He knows that he has to balance the ticket with a running mate from the North. That is Bola Tinubu’s dilemma, and Abiola also faced the same dilemma before picking Baba Gana Kingibe as his running mate. So he had a Muslim-Muslim ticket.