By Peter Duru, Makurdi & Ogalah Ibrahim, Katsina
During the 2015 general elections, northern Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, governors were said to have mobilzed support for General Muhammadu Buhari, who was then the presidential candidate of the opposing All Progressives Congress, APC. This supposedly enabled Buhari to defeat the then incumbent and a southerner, Dr Goodluck Jonathan and won the presidential election.
Now that both the APC and the PDP have swapped positions for the 2023 elections with the APC fielding a southerner, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu as its presidential candidate and the PDP having a northern candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, the thinking in some circles is that there may be a repeat of what happened in 2015 and northerners will vote for their own son in 2023.
A member of the All Progressives Congress APC, who does not wish to be named said, “I don’t see that happening this time. You know there were reasons behind those actions in 2015. At that time, Buhari was very popular
So, many Governors were afraid to support any other candidate in the north because their seats would be at risk. Religious factor also played a major role then but now it is not the case as both candidates (Tinubu and Atiku) are Muslims. So you cannot use religion to divide the country.
In fact, the action then was referred to as “Bakin Linta” in the north which means to raise a building and stop at lintel level. In other words, you vote PDP from the bottom upward but when it gets to voting for the president, you vote Buhari, APC.
“One of the reasons the PDP northerners governors voted against Jonathan was because they said he reneged on his promise to the north to do only one term. Buhari is a different person from Atiku and Atiku may not enjoy the support Buhari enjoyed in 2015 because it was the masses that wanted Buhari, so they fought and voted for him.”
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