Amid permutations ahead of the 2023 general elections, the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu is banking on his alliance with some outgoing northern governors to get votes in the region.
At the Teslim Balogun Stadium in Lagos State on Saturday during a rally, Tinubu boasted that his alliance with the governors of Kano, Katsina, Kaduna, Kebbi, Kwara, and Plateau will deliver for him the bulk of the votes he needs to outsmart his main opponents including Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP), and Rabiu Kwankwaso of the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP).
Tinubu’s statement comes five months after about 10 northern governors backed his candidacy at a keenly contested primary in June.
“Can you see the governors of Kano, Katsina, Kaduna, Kebbi, Kwara, and Plateau?” Tinubu asked a crowd of APC supporters decked up in party paraphernalia on Saturday.
“We won’t lose any of the states. We will govern this country together. They are here in Lagos to show their support for me,” he added in Yoruba.
The governor of Lagos from 1999 to 2007 also urged the party’s supporters to get their Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs) and vote for him at the February polls.
In attendance at the rally include APC National Chairman, Abdullahi Adamu; Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila; Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu and his deputy, Obafemi Hamzat; amongst other APC stalwarts.
Kano had over 1.8 million cumulative votes – the highest by any state in the 2019 presidential election. Kastina and Kaduna polled 1.5 million votes separately, Plateau with over 1 million votes, Kebbi with a total of 650,000 votes, and Kwara with a paltry over 400,000 total votes – all mainly shared between the APC’s Muhammadu Buhari and PDP’s Atiku Abubakar. Other states with heavy numerical voter strength based on past elections include Jigawa, and Bauchi, amongst others.
At the last election, Kastina-born Buhari won 19 states, many of which were northern APC states while Adamawa-born Atiku won 18 states – with a total of 15 million to 11 million votes respectively.
At the moment, APC controls 21 states with the exclusion of Osun which will become a PDP state on Sunday, November 27, 2022, when Ademola Adeleke is sworn in. Similarly, PDP controls 13 states as of press time while the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) controls Anambra State.
However, there are fears that the intra-party squabbles between the G5 led by Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State and Atiku over the chairmanship of Iyorchia Ayu would affect the chances of the PDP presidential candidate at the polls next February. A former national chairman of the APC, Adams Oshiomhole recently said the neutrality of the G5 is good for Tinubu’s chances.
