2023: Only Southern Candidate Can Defeat Atiku

Laleye Dipo in Minna

Former Niger State Commissioner for Information, Mr. Jonathan Tsado Vatsa, has observed that “a very strong” presidential candidate from the southern part of the country would defeat the candidate of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, in the 2023 presidential election.

Abubakar, who hailed from Adamawa State and a northerner, recently picked the PDP presidential ticket after defeating the Governor of Rivers State, Mr. Nyesom Wike and others by a very wide margin.

Vatsa, who was also a former Niger State Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC) claimed that there is nothing like a monolithic north in Nigeria’s politics any longer, adding that a right APC’s candidate from the southern part of the country would coast to victory at the polls against Abubakar.

The APC chieftain, who spoke to newsmen yesterday in Minna, said that with the situation on the ground only a politician of the APC leaders stature and former Governor of Lagos State, Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu, could defeat Atiku in the presidential election and therefore asked delegates to the APC presidential convention not to hesitate to cast their ballots for Tinubu.

Vasta said: “Tinubu is very acceptable in the north and in the southwest. He is the only person with the capacity to face Atiku in the general election. A northern candidate for APC will be a walkover for Atiku, and that is my candid opinion.

“Wike’s performance in the PDP’s presidential primary election against Atiku is enough to tell the whole world that northerners are tired of their leaders. Wike would have defeated Atiku if the south had stood for him. Majority of his votes are from the north that is why I am saying that Tinubu will give Atiku a nightmare in the general election.”   

He submitted that contrary to fears being entertained  that northerners would vote along religious and ethnic lines, “it will interest Nigerians to know that the average northerners are tired of the northern leadership because the common man on the streets in the north have not benefitted anything from the 52 years that the region has ruled this country.

 Vatsa declared: “Northern leadership in the last 52 years has only brought poverty, hunger, increase the level of illiteracy and now high level of insecurity in the region. I can tell you that in a free and fair election, the northerners will want a change of leadership to the south.”

 He opined that those clamoring for a northern candidate for the APC because of the emergence of Atiku are not in tune with the reality in the north.