Governor Bala Mohammed of Bauchi State has stated that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) will not repeat the ruling All Progressives Congress’ (APC) “mistake” of running a Muslim-Muslim presidential ticket in the 2027 elections.
The governor, speaking on Channels Television’s Politics Tonight on Tuesday, denied speculation about a potential Seyi Makinde/Bala Mohammed pairing for the PDP, saying that the party has not decided on a candidate.
“Everybody should know that PDP is open, and it’s open in a manner that it is for the southerner to bring somebody,” Mohammed said.
“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 the majority Muslim vice president in the North, not to put ourselves in a cul-de-sac the way and manner APC did in 2023.”
Mohammed argued that the APC’s decision to run a Muslim-Muslim ticket “did not take into cognisance our diversity.”
Speaking on the possibility of a Makinde/Mohammed ticket to match President Bola Tinubu and Vice President Kashim Shettima in 2027, the governor said it could “match even better”.
“It depends on what Nigerians want. If they want the continuation of this clueless administration, then it is the choice of Nigerians,” he said.
“But certainly, they have seen the pedigree and capacity of Seyi and my humble self at the subnational level. And of course, it is not only Seyi that is there—there are so many people that may even come up and so many people that can be good vice presidents.”
Mohammed emphasised that the PDP has “so many options in terms of pairing”, adding that whoever emerged as the presidential candidate of the party would get his support.
