{"id":50722,"date":"2018-10-10T09:43:30","date_gmt":"2018-10-10T08:43:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/?p=50722"},"modified":"2018-10-10T09:44:02","modified_gmt":"2018-10-10T08:44:02","slug":"exclusive-south-east-has-a-strong-case-but-atikus-running-mate-to-come-from-south-west","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/?p=50722","title":{"rendered":"EXCLUSIVE: South-East ‘Has A Strong Case’ But Atiku\u2019s Running Mate To Come From South-West"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Atiku Abubakar, presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), will get a running mate from the South-West \u2014 although there is a \u201cvery strong case\u201d for the South-East \u2014 SaharaReporters has been told.<\/p>\n

Wednesday is the deadline set by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for parties to submit the names of their presidential candidates and their running mates, meaning a series of meetings have been going on since Sunday when Atiku overwhelmingly beat Sokoto State Governor, Aminu Tambuwal, to get the PDP ticket.<\/p>\n

A source privy to some of the ongoing meetings told Saharareporters that despite the appeal of the South-East, there are three very important reasons why the decision-makers are already leaning towards the South-West.<\/p>\n

These are a strong desire to get someone to play the ‘Osinbajo role’ for Atiku, the need to accommodate the South-West in the national structure, and the electoral value of the region ahead of 2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe whole focus is definitely between South-West and South-East. A lot of dynamics come to play, because the Vice Presidency is not strictly a political position,\u201d said the source, who requested not to be named.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, what they are looking at are the sentiments that the vice presidential candidate can drive for the joint ticket. To a large extent, they are looking at South-East, of course; and I can confirm to you that the South-East has a strong case. But the major consideration delaying the announcement is that a lot of stakeholders feel that the position should go to South-West. And they\u2019ve been giving lots of reasons for that.<\/p>\n

\u201cFirst, during the Goodluck Jonathan administration, PDP marginalised the region to a large extent. Anyim Pius Anyim (South-East) was the SGF, Namadi Sambo (North-West) was the Vice President, David Mark (North-Central) was the Senate President. There was no south-westerner in the top five offices in the country. It was one of what Buhari used in campaigning against Jonathan in 2015, that the South-West was not regarded in the scheme of things.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlso, the South-West has the second-highest number of registered voters, so we should be able to do something for that region in order to get their support.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are also looking at the Osinbajo factor as well. Osinbajo comes across as a technocrat, somebody who is intelligent, very smart \u2014 and he is from South-West. So if we are trying to get the votes of South-West in 2019, the question they will ask is: \u2018What do you have for us, because APC is giving us the VP.\u2019 <\/p>\n

\u201cTo you and me, it doesn\u2019t make sense \u2014 because we know that, to a large extent, where you come from does not really have a direct impact on the people\u2019s yearnings. Having Osinbajo in government was a factor for Tinubu; when the cabal was moving against him, trying to short-change him, Osinbajo was the one standing for him in the presidency. So, to a large extent, the party hierarchy feel that if they have someone like that occupying the number-two position, they will be able to push the South-West agenda from the presidency; and they have someone they can hold responsible if Atiku does not deliver his restructuring programme. So, that\u2019s the argument from the South-West over the past 24 hours, and the decision-makers are already considering it.\u201d<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Atiku Abubakar, presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), will get a running mate from the South-West \u2014 although there is a \u201cvery strong case\u201d for the South-East \u2014 SaharaReporters has been told. Wednesday is the deadline set by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for parties to submit the names of their presidential […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":50723,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[1048],"class_list":["post-50722","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-politics","tag-atiku-abubakar"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50722","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=50722"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50722\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/50723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=50722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=50722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=50722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}