Former member of the All Progressives Congress BoT, Buba Galadima, says northerners who support the presidential ambition of Rabiu Kwankwaso will switch their allegiance to Atiku Abubakar if Kwankwaso agrees to be running mate to Labour Party’s Peter Obi.
Galadima made the comment on Monday while speaking on Arise TV.
Talks have been rife concerning a merger involving the New Nigeria Peoples Party and the Labour Party. The major challenge has been determining who will be the presidential candidate and running mate between former Anambra state governor Peter Obi and Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso.
Speaking on the issues surrounding the merger, Galadima said, “During negotiations, The Peter Obi camp were saying that there are sentiments that the President of Nigeria should come from the South East. And the Kwankkwaso group said no because we are talking about a New Nigeria.
“I shared the negotiation between Labour Party and NNPP for 13 good hours. Those who are saying that it is an insult for Chief Peter Obi to Deputize Kwankwaso don’t know Politics.
“Obi should accept to be the Vice President to Kwankwaso because Kwankwaso has more political and leadership experience than Peter Obi. Obi as Vice will head the economy because he has that pedigree.
“If Kwankwaso becomes Peter Obi’s deputy Atiku gains because those following K will support Atiku but if Obi becomes K’s deputy Obi supporters will still support him.
OduNews had earlier reported that the NNPP presidential candidate Kwankwaso insisted that he won’t be running mate to Peter Obi.
He noted that the northerners would find it challenging to support a candidate from the South-East region based on the animosity northerners believe their kinsmen are facing in the region.
In his words, “Unfortunately, there are many issues in the South East, and a northern voter is the worst-hit in this issue of maladministration in this country,” he asserted. “But even under that circumstance, a northern voter also believes that he is better with one united Nigeria.
“Therefore, most of the things that are happening in the South, especially in the South East; people are not comfortable with that and as long as you have somebody from there in any party, it will be very difficult for the northern voters to vote, and that’s the situation now.”
