Adedokun Waliyu 
The Director of Strategic Communications of the Peoples Democratic Party Presidential Campaign Council, Dele Momodu, has disclosed how the presidential candidate of the PDP, Atiku Abubakar, will emerge as president in next week’s election.
Momodu, in a statement on Tuesday, said the former vice president would dominate the North-East, North-West, North-Central and South-South geopolitical zones, adding that Tinubu might win some states in the North and South-West.
Momodu said, “Atiku Abubakar will dominate the North-East, North-West, North-Central and South-South. Tinubu may pick a few states in the North and South-West but won’t have enough to win. The bridges required to cross to victory have taken Atiku 30 years to build. Tinubu has not been able to lock down the entire South-West not to talk of the whole of Nigeria.
“Over-reliance on bribing the electorates will fail. Hoping to rig brazenly will also fail spectacularly. I repeat, the entire North and the South-South will make Atiku the next president. Atiku will still be competitive in the South-East and South-West. Wherever Obi is number one in the East, Atiku will be number two. Wherever Tinubu is number one in the South-West, Atiku will be number two or vice versa.
“Atiku will be the first to cross the line of recording 25 per cent in 24 states. He will get 25 per cent automatically in the 19 states of northern regions and will pick six in South-South automatically. He will pick more 25 per cent in all of the five states in the South-East, a traditional base of PDP, and same in the South-West.
The media director pointed out that many of the polls about the forthcoming presidential election on February 25, 2023, had failed monumentally due to the over-reliance on technology in a largely illiterate population.
Momodu said historically, whenever the South produced two strong candidates, the dominant northern candidate won, stressing that it was the case in “1979 and 1983, Obafemi Awolowo and Nnamdi Azikiwe versus Shehu Shagari.”
He said, “Bola Tinubu is far weaker today in the South-West and Awolowo was by far more formidable, while Obi is the new Azikiwe (the first Governor General and President of Nigeria) in the South East, and Kwankwaso is the current Aminu Kano.
“Wherever Obi is number one, Atiku will be number two or vice versa. I do not know of any state PDP will not record 25 per cent and eventually win the overall popular votes. Nigeria has become so polarisingly divided (pardon my tautology) that the “peoples” are going to vote majorly along ethnic lines as well as primordial sentiments. The North will not vote a “fake Muslim” in the name of a pretentious and mischievous Muslim-Muslim ticket. The scam is dead on arrival.”
Momodu further noted that the North-East would not vote for Tinubu when they have one of their own contesting to become president.
He said, “The North-East will never vote for a number two position when they’ve been chasing the number one since 1966. The North-West will not abandon an Atiku for a Tinubu who’s well known for his iron grip on Lagos State since 1999.
The South-West itself knows it has the most controversial and palpably weakest candidate in this race this time and would humbly and readily accept its fate with equanimity. It will also dawn on the South East that Obi’s raving popularity alone cannot carry him across the winning line and many of their traditional voters will willingly settle for Atiku Abubakar and Ifeanyichukwu Okowa, the cerebral man and gentle giant of Igbo ancestry.
“I predict that the former vice president Atiku Abubakar will be the next president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. He is the most prepared, experienced candidate in the race who’s ready to hit the ground running from day one.”
