2023 Presidency: APC Should Not Waste Time in Giving Yahaya Bello The Ticket- Opinion »

If the ruling All Progressives Congress considers a candidate other than a northerner and a young person like Kogi State Governor Yahaya Bello, the party will crash in the 2023 general election. The statistics are straightforward.

It’s no news, the People’s Democratic Party is bringing former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, a North Easterner. With this, any attempt by the APC to select a southerner as its flagbearer would turn the presidential battle into a North VS South contest, with the implication that the north would rarely vote for an outsider, and the north would hardly decrease in voting population.

However, if the APC recognizes the value of wisdom, Governor Bello would bring the truphy to the party for two reasons: he is the candidate of the youth and he is a fellow northerner from a marginalized northern region. The calculation is simple: Bello will divide the northern votes, obtain the southern votes, and obtain the votes of the nation’s youths, who constitute the majority of the voting population.

It’s also a harsh reality that northerners have a political mindset that encourages brotherhood and respect for religion. Of course, we cannot deny that region and region are important factors in determining political victory in Nigeria. Bello falls under these two categories, which will influence votes from the North regardless of party affiliation.

Yahaya Bello’s candidacy is also advantageous to the APC in that he is from a state that connects him to the Yorubas and Igbos while also being accepted as their own by the northerners. Bello is close to the South East, as well as the South South and South West. The governor is also regarded as a unifier in this regard. Of course, Nigeria requires a leader who can connect with all regions and achieve success.

The APC should equally know that Nigerians will also begin to investigate the religion and tribal affiliations of the candidates that the PDP, APC, and other parties will present for the general election next year. And when these records are checked, it is undeniable that Bello is the most detribalized person, based on his leadership model at the state level, where he has almost all of the tribes in his cabinet. And as a religiously tolerant leader, he has also constructed a suitable chapel for Christian worshipers in the Kogi State government house making the state to be deviod of religion crisis.

Yahaya Bello already has the votes of about over 35 million of Nigerian youths. It’s wity regard to that advantage a youth group, Bello Ambassadors Network, has urged the APC to give its ticket to Bello who is a youth and a northerner as only such a candidate can win Atiku in the general election.

Without a doubt, the APC’s victory is in its hands, and it is in the hands of Yahaya Bello. If the party is sincere and still wants to be in power, only Bello can dismantle Atiku’s stronghold and deliver the party a resounding victory.