Following the agitation for shifting of the presidency to the south after the expiration of President Muhammadu Buhari in 2023, the main opposition is reportedly facing a hard time after it lost some of its governors to the All Progressives Congress (APC). Some high-ranking members of the ruling party who pleaded anonymity informed Legit.ng that political kingmakers in APC have reportedly resolved to offer the party’s 2023 presidential ticket to former president Goodluck Jonathan.
The sources said that the party’s acting national chairman and governor of Yobe state, Mai Mala Buni, the minister of justice, Abubakar Malami and Jigawa state governor, Badaru Abubakar, were said to be fighting fiercely to grab the slot of presidential running mate.
According to the sources, the latest game-plan against the PDP, said the arrangements have already reached the ‘advanced stage’, to give a rousing welcome to Jonathan’s formal defection into the APC any time in August 2021.
APC may zone presidential ticket to the south in 2023
They further explained that President Buhari is expected back in Abuja soon to celebrate the “grabbing of another big fish” out of the opposition camp, to give the 2023 agenda a more befitting strategic foundation. Buni, Malami and Badaru have reportedly swung into action, discretely consulting, expanding their reach among stakeholders including the clergy and monarchs across the northern and southern parts of the country.
It was said that late-night strategy meetings are being held on a daily basis by the associates and foot-soldiers of the three vice-presidential hopefuls in a bid to strengthen the ligaments of consultations.
It is also believed that the ongoing consultations by the vice-presidential hopefuls could culminate into designing their draft cashflow analysis for consideration ahead of 2023 for the number two seat in the country. Buni has expectedly used the goodwill he has built as the acting national chairman of the ruling party, to start building a formidable campaign structure ahead of the declaration of Jonathan as the party’s joker for 2023.
Also, diehard supporters of minister Malami are believed to be working assiduously in support of their favoured candidate while reaching out to respected political power brokers across northern and southern parts of the country. Malami’s supporters are said to be hinging their solidarity on “the urgent need to have young Turks in the frontline of the 2023 politics.”
As the ruling party awaits the return to Abuja, of its national leader, who doubles as the president, it is obvious that Nigerians have not yet seen the last of heavy political strategising for the nation’s presidency.