By Starrys Obazei | February 8, 2023
starrys@ddnewsonline.com
Dismissing polls giving victories to other candidates in the February 25, 2023, presidential election, the Peoples Democratic Party Campaign Council has tipped its candidate, Atiku Abubakar to win the poll, predicting him to garner majority votes in the entire North and the South-South zone of the country.
Dele Momodu, the Director, Strategic Communication, National Election Management Committee of the PDP Presidential Campaign Council, stated this on Wednesday in Abuja.
In a statement entitled, “How Atiku Abubakar will become the next president of Nigeria,” Momodu described polls and surveys predicting victory for other candidates as fundamentally flawed, due to what he called their “over-reliance on technology in a largely illiterate population.”
Justifying his reason for Atiku’s victory, the famous publisher reckoned that “a presidential candidate cannot depend totally on votes from outside his home base to win this election. It is a fact of history that whenever the south produced two strong candidates, the dominant northern candidate won, such as in 1979 and 1983, Obafemi Awolowo and Nnamdi Azikiwe versus Shehu Shagari.”107HowLagos Hotel Owner Shot Us, Despite Paying Bill – Guests
He noted that the victory of the PDP is based on the “established political history of Nigeria and empirical data,” arguing that “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.”
He continued: “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.”
Momodu, the former presidential aspirant on the platform of the PDP, warned those bent on rigging their way to victory to perish the thought, stressing that “over-reliance on bribing the electorate 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.”