The Majority Leader of the House of Representatives, Alhassan Ado-Doguwa, has said the running mate to the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, may come from the North-East geopolitical zone.
Gatekeepers News reports that Doguwa said this while appearing as a guest on Politics Today, a current affairs programme on Channels Television.
He said the vice-presidential candidate might come from the North-East while the leadership of the ruling party would deliberate on the religious factor.
Doguwa said, “There was a tentative zoning arrangement. I may be wrong but I know of a tentative zoning arrangement that started with the emergence of the National Chairman of the party from the North-Central and we gave it to Abdullahi Adamu. On the same zoning arrangement, it gave out the presidency to the South and God, in His mercy, has given it to the right person – Bola Ahmed Tinubu. And in that same contemplated zoning agenda, it has given out the vice-presidency to the North-East. I may be wrong.
“This is not an official declaration of the party. I know of this tentative zoning arrangement that started during the election of the National Chairman.
“My thought on that is straightforward in the sense that when you have someone who has earned and garnered a lot of confidence among various communities and peoples of different walks of life, Bola Ahmed Tinubu has garnered this sophisticated and unprecedented confidence in him.
“I think when you now begin to contemplate or talk about running mate, I think it is an issue that does not matter at all.
“I want to tell you that Nigerians believe in Bola Ahmed Tinubu. It does not matter who he takes. It could be a Muslim-Muslim ticket, I don’t want to contemplate that because this is something that should be discussed at the very high level.
“I may be part of it but for now, I should not contemplate that. It is not going to be quite significant. It is not going to be a difficult issue.
“I’m a member of NEC; I’m a member of the National Caucus of the party; I’m also a member of the tripartite body of the party, with Mr President being the Chairman. So, when such a time comes, we would discuss that.
“At this level, I would not like to contemplate, especially when the first thing we have to do is fence-mending and we have commenced that already.”
