The Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Governors’ Forum, Governor Bala Mohammed of Bauchi State, on Thursday took a veiled jab at former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, when he spoke on the party’s effort to choose a strong and credible presidential candidate for the 2027 election and why he jettisoned his ambition to support zoning the presidency to Southern Nigeria.
Governor Mohammed, who was guest on Channels Television programme, Politics Today, said, “We are changing the narrative in the manner that we don’t want to be like those we are accusing, who are always presenting themselves, sometimes even becoming pastoral in their quest for self-actualisation in terms of looking for opportunity to step out as presidential candidate”.
Senator Muhammed, who is being touted to share a ticket with Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State, asserted that “I am not one of those; but certainly, if Seyi or any other person emerges, I will give my maximum support for the person to become president. But me and Seyi, we have never discussed the issue of pairing, but we have mentioned the issue of taking over power by the grace of God, so that we can give Nigerians the opportunity of good governance in 2027 and upward”.
He however stated that in picking its presidential and vice-presidential candidates for the 2027 election, the party would not want to make the same mistake the All Progressives Congress, APC, made in 2023 when it picked a minority from the South to pair with a majority from the North thereby finding itself in a cul-de-sac with a Muslim-Muslim ticket.
Governor Mohammed said the APC failed to take into cognizance the country’s diversity and different feelings of the people feelings as Nigeria has not reached the stage where these factors don’t count.
Newsmata.com.ng recalls that the issue of the Muslim-Muslim ticket generated so much bad blood that many northern Christians dumped the APC.
The Bauchi governor also gave reasons why he dumped his presidential ambition, insisting that what is paramount for him is the PDP winning the 2027 election.
He however expressed confidence that a combination of him and Makinde would not only be a good match for the Tinubu/Shettima ticket but would even be better.
According to him, “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 a majority Muslim vice president in the north, not to put ourselves in the cul-de-sac the way and manner APC did in 2023, when they picked a minority from the South, and they had had to take a majority person from the north which brought the issue of Muslim-Muslim ticket.
“They did not take into cognizance, our diversity and our different people’s feelings because we have not really reached the stage where we don’t take consideration of all these factors”.
Declaring that he did not jettison his presidential ambition so that he could share a ticket with Makinde, the former FCT minister however emphasised that should this be the case, the duo “can match and even do better” than President Tinubu and Shettima “because to me, 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, the capacity of Seyi and my humble self both at the subnational level, and what we are doing to ensure that we ease the tension within the system in terms of mode of emergence”.
Asked at what point he decided to forgo his ambition, he said, “I jettisoned that idea from the point we decided to say that all of us are equal, and we have so many eminently qualified people who are not even opportune to be within the ring of our group, that is the group of governors. People outside, who are not even Governors who are bureaucrats and technocrats, and they may have more experience and knowledge of leadership, and so we should leave this thing open. And by the time we took the decision, we must go by it.
“But whoever emerges should know that he is doing it on our behalf. That’s why I said it is a delegation of responsibility of people of like minds, and our party should do something different to show that we are different from the rest; not a party that brings people who are just grandstanding and who feel that they are larger than life. That it is even a favour for them to lead; that it is their own maternal or whatever right for them to continue to lead in the country where we have 250 million people…
“So, we decided as a party at this time and epoch to change the trajectory of leadership recruitment in a manner that we build consensus around us and open the space for the best to emerge.
“Of course, we knew that this is a time when a southerner is the president, and of course, he has just gone for four years. And, of course, the second tenure would be assumed to be his. So, if we are contesting, we needed somebody very strong, or stronger than him from the south to give him a fight for his life because the government of the day is not working well, and so we have to seize the opportunity to make sure that we provide or present a credible candidate that is marketable.
“Already, the situation is germane for us to take over power, and we need to navigate very cautiously and intelligently”.
Dismissing the notion that that he withdrew from the race so that he could pair with Governor Makinde, Senator Mohammed said, “No, that is not what we are planning. “You see, I have learned this thing because I have worked closely with the president when I was a minister of FCT when we came back in 2011and formed the government.
“The president must be given the opportunity to choose his vice. I am not withdrawing because I want to prepare myself for vice presidency. Of course, if it is within the senses of judgement of our party leaders and the presidential candidate to choose me, I’m ready”. He however stated that if he’s not given, he is ready to support whoever emerges from the south.
For him, “The issue is to win election. Who is acceptable in the north, who has really stepped out and the north knows him in such a manner that he would represent them. So, if there are better candidates, of course, there are so many positions in the presidency”.