The four likely top contenders in the 2023 Presidential race are at the heat of intrigues over who becomes their running mate.
Global Upfront Newspaper (GUN) monitoring of the four Presidential candidates – Atiku Abubakar of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Bola Ahmed Tinubu of All Progressives Congress (APC), Peter Obi of Labour Party (LP) and Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso of New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) found out that they are all facing different challenges over who becomes their running mate.
Former Vice President Atiku who appear to have almost settled for the Delta State Governor, Ifeanyi Okowa as his running mate had to contend with the PDP Governors Forum who came seeking to have a say on his choice. GUN learnt that Atiku, not ready to have anyone dictate to him and the party, asked them to set up a committee to advise him on it.
GUN source said that the committee was Atiku’s subtle way of dismissing them especially Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State and his team from the South – Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu, Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia and Seyi Makinde of Oyo State.
For APC, Presidential candidate Asiwaju Bola Tinubu has enormous challenges ahead over the choice of running mate. While some forces are urging him to go for Muslim-Muslim ticket and dam the consequences, others are declaring it a no-go area for him if he really desires to win and become President of Nigeria.
In whichever direction he chooses to go has its own electoral risks especially as he still has to contend with varying interests like the cabal working in tandem with the National Chairman of the party Senator Abdullahi Adamu and the Progressive Governors Forum who want one of them for the job.
Muslim top contenders for the running mate are Kaduna and Kano States Governors – Nasir El-Rufai and Abdullahi Ganduje, Senate President Ahmad Lawan and former Borno Governor Mustapha Shettima. The top Christian bloc contenders include former House of Representatives Speaker Yakubu Dogara, Secretary to Government of the Federation (SGF) Boss Mustapha and Governor of Plateau State, Simon Lalong.
A close ally of Tinubu told GUN that the choice of running mate for Tinubu has become difficult because of the insistence of his Northern supporters that he must pick a Muslim.
The source said Tinubu may yield to them because of the large votes expected from the North and because of their attachment to their religion.
Also, the Labour Party flag bearer Peter Obi who currently enjoys huge wave of support from across the country particularly among youths is fine tuning his running mate issue, putting youths into top considerations.
The fourth top Presidential contender, former Governor of Kano State, Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso is also having some difficulty in choosing his running mate.
He is undecided which of the three regions in the South~South South, South West and South East he can get an acceptable person.