*Says PDP Needs Southern Christian Presidential Candidate
BAUCHI State Governor, Bala Mohammed, has stated that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) will not make what he described as the ruling All Progressives Congress’ (APC) 2023 “mistake” by fielding a Muslim-Muslim presidential ticket in the 2027 elections.
Speaking on a television programme on Thursday, August 28, Mohammed argued that a southern candidate would help PDP avoid the controversy that dogged the APC in 2023, as well as avoid its own miscalculation in fielding a Northern Muslim candidate, in the person of former vice president, Atiku Abubakar, in the 2023 presidential election.
Arguing that the party must be sensitive to Nigeria’s religious and regional diversity in choosing its presidential candidate, Mohammed, who is Chairman of the PDP Governors Forum, said: “What I want to say is we have not absolutely chosen; it is open in a manner that it is for the southerners to bring somebody.
“And I say with all humility, we don’t want to make the mistake of the APC. We need a Christian from the South to emerge as a presidential candidate, so that he will lead the majority of Christian southerners to come and pick the majority Muslim vice president in the North.
“Not to put ourselves in a cul de sac the way the APC did in 2023, where they picked a minority from the South, and they had had to take a majority person from the North, which brought the issue of the Muslim-Muslim.
“That did not take into cognisance our diversity and our different people’s feelings, because we have not really reached a stage where we don’t take consideration of all these factors.”
On the possibility of pairing with Oyo State Governor, Seyi Makinde, the former Federal Capital Territory (FCT) minister denied stepping down is presidential ambition for position himself for vice presidential ticket, noting: “The president must be given the opportunity to choose his vice. I am not withdrawing because I want to prepare myself for the vice presidency.
“Of course, if it is within the sense of judgment of our party leaders and the presidential candidate to choose me, I’m ready, but certainly if I’m not given, I have said it to the public today, I’m ready to give whoever the party or the presidential candidate would emerge from the South to bring somebody if he is better than me.”
Admitting that a Makinde/Mohammed ticket to match President Bola Tinubu and Vice President Kashim Shettima in 2027 could “match even better,” Mohammed, however, added: “It depends on what Nigerians want. If they want the continuation of this clueless administration, then it is the choice of Nigerians.
“But certainly, they have seen the pedigree and capacity of Seyi and my humble self at subnational level. And of course, it is not only Seyi that is there ; there are so many people that may even come up and so many people that can be good vice presidents.”
He stated that PDP has “so many options, in terms of pairing,” and that whoever emerged as the presidential candidate of the party would get his support.
