Former National Youth Leader of the All Progressives Congress, Ismaeel Ahmed has expressed confidence that the North will vote massively for the party’s candidate, Bola Ahmed Tinubu because he has proven to have more capacity than his counterparts in the race for the presidency.
Ahmed who is also a Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on National Social Investment Programme said this in an interview with the Nation.
According to him, the APC has done better in rallies in the North than any other party, and that is attributable to the untiring work Tinubu keeps putting into his campaign.
He acknowledged the pedigree and impacts of Northern candidates like Atiku Abubakar and Rabiu Kwankwaso but stated that the APC has a more sellable, tested and trusted candidate.
“Atiku and Kwankwaso are not lightweights. They have been around and they have paid their dues accordingly to society and to this game,” he said.
“However, we just believe we have a better-prepared candidate, a more sellable candidate, a more tested candidate, and a more trusted candidate.
“Ultimately the decision of northerners will come down to who can we trust, and who we can rely on. And the answer will be, the person we relied on when the north needed help to win an election against an incumbent president (Jonathan). The answer is the person who had never allowed ethnicity to be his lifeline or determining factor. That person is Asiwaju.”
On the chances of the Labour Party presidential candidate, Peter Obi, Ahmed said that the purported popularity he enjoys among youths is cosmetic and only resides on Social Media.
He asserted that Obi ‘s candidacy is widely exaggerated, and that most of the people who vaunt about him on social media will be nowhere to be found in the polling booths on election day.
“When people tell me that youths are in support of Peter Obi, I keep asking which youths? All youths that I know are not supporting Peter Obi. So people just get carried away by social media noise. Most of the voters that will turn up on the day of the election are not social media warriors. They come out and vote and go back home.
“Social media has its uses but I think the Obi candidacy has been widely exaggerated.”