Bauchi State Governor Bala Mohammed has said he and the Oyo State governor, Seyi Makinde, would make a “perfect match” if paired on a joint ticket ahead of the 2027 presidential election.
Mohammed stated this on Thursday during an interview on Channels Television’s Politics Today, while reacting to speculations about him running as a vice-presidential candidate to Makinde.
The governor suggested that the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, needs a Christian from the South to emerge as presidential candidate, with a Muslim from the North as running mate.
He said: “Seyi Makinde-Bala Mohammed ticket can match even better. Because to me, it depends on what Nigerians want. If they want the continuation of this clueless administration, then it is the choice of Nigerians. But certainly they have seen the pedigree, the capacity of Seyi and my humble self at the subnational level.
“And of course, it is not only Seyi; there are so many people that may even come up. And there are so many people that can be good vice president. What we are saying is that this time around, if Nigerians are selling this option, they should be given the opportunity. But of course, there are so many options that, maybe, you don’t want to mention, and I don’t want to mention, that people are talking in terms of pairing. It is all these narratives that would go into the consciousness or the senses of judgment of our party people and even the presidential candidate, when he emerges.
“What I want to say is, we have not absolutely chosen or narrowed down on any person. Everybody should know that PDP is open. It’s open in a manner that it is for the southerners to bring somebody. And I said with all humility, we don’t want to make the mistake of the APC.
“We need a Christian from the South to emerge as a presidential candidate so that he will lead the majority of Christian southerners to come and pick a majority Muslim vice president in the north, not to put ourselves in the cul-de-sac the way a man in APC did in 2023, when they picked a minority from the south. And they had to take a majority person from the north, which brought the issue of Muslim-Muslim ticket, which did not take into cognisance our diversity and our different peoples’ feelings. This is because we have not really reached a stage where we don’t take into consideration all these factors.”
