Why Tinubu needs to work for a North-central APC chairmanship

The national convention will now hold next month if there is no eleventh hour decision to once again shift it. There are two reasons Tinubu should consider working for a politician from the north-central region of the country. The national leader of the APC should take the clues.

Of course, since the last chairman of the party is from south, the next one ought to come from the north. That should be the arrangements and the APC is working towards that line. Tinubu has some roles to play. By virtue of his position in the party, he should understand better.

The most convincing reason is that Tinubu needs to consider the pattern with which power is shared among the geopolitical zones. The north-central region is so much under rewarded. It has not really benefitted from the system at all.

The president is from northwest while his vice, Yemi Osinbajo, is from southwest. Then, it can be inferred that the APC had fully and appropriately rewarded the northwest and southwest with juicy posts. The northeastern region has taken the Senate President (Ahmed Lawan) and the caretaker committee chairman, Mai Mala Buni.

Whereas in term of support, the north-central region is far more faithful to the APC than the Northeastern part. The APC is able to take five out of six in the north-central zone. Therefore, the national chairman ought to come from them. And Tinubu should back up a politician from that side.

The second reason is about political calculation. If he backs up or works for a north-central politician, the region won’t move closer to the presidential ticket. Automatically, he will have schemed out the zone. And the northwest won’t also be involved.

The arrangement will remain the Northeastern region. And the former Lagos State governor, Bola Tinubu can easily pick up his running mate from that part of the federation. It is really simple by calculation.

And if his running mate comes from that axis, Tinubu would be able to challenge and confront the ex vice president Alhaji Atiku Abubakar. One way of weakening Atiku Abubakar’s camp is to pick a running mate from the northeast. That will enable Tinubu to gather votes from the axis.