A front line presidential aspirant for the 2023 elections on the platform of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC). Asiwaju Bola Tinubu is rapidly gaining grounds in the northeast, the home of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, a leading presidential aspirant ion the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Leaders of the Tinubu Support Groups in the northeast, former Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno State, former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Babachir Lawal, etc., at a conference of the mobilization group on Monday, declared that Tinubu is the most qualified candidate in the APC to succeed President Muhammadu Buhari in 2023. The former Borno State Governor, Senator Shettima, representing Borno Central in the National Assembly, at the Confidence which held at the International Conference Centre, Abuja, affirmed that “Tinubu is the most qualified candidate in the party to replace President Buhari in 2023.”
The former controversial SGF, Lawal, who was forced out ofoffice on allegations of corruption by the Buhari administration, stated that Tinubu would change the narrative within the ruling APC on the challenges plaguing the party, which he said have impeded the performance of the party government.
Moving away from the northeast to the northwest where Tinubu appointed a former lawmaker from Kano State, Abdulmumin Jibrin, Director-General of Bola Tinubu Support Groups Management Council, the former Lagos State Governor does not seem to have solid ground on the zone, the home of former Governor Rabi’u Musa Kwankwaso.
Abdulmumin Jibrin, however, disclosed that the conference was interested in the massive mobilisation of APC members to ensure that Tinubu gets the party’s presidential ticket to fly the APC flag as its candidate in 2023.
Meanwhile, the Monday conference in Abuja and others political activities are laying foundation for Tinubu’s penetration of the north.
The Northern Elders Forum had a meeting in Kaduna at the weekend vowed to resist politicians seeking power for personal ambition. The Forum, however, assured that the north will vote in the 2023 elections based on competence of the candidates and not in sentiments as the zone did in the past.