Governor of Bauchi State, Bala Mohammed, has said that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) not only needs a southern candidate but also a Christian from the region to emerge as its presidential candidate for the 2027 election.

Mohammed, who stated this on Thursday, said that the PDP plans to avoid what he said was a mistake made by the All Progressives Congress (APC) when it opted for a same-faith ticket for the 2023 presidential poll.

“What I want to say is we have not absolutely chosen or narrowed down on any person. Everybody should know that PDP is open.

“It’s open in a manner that it is for the southerners to bring somebody, and I said with all humility, we don’t want to make the mistake of the APC,” he said on Channels Television’s Politics Today.

“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 the APC did in 2023, where they picked a minority from the South, and they had had to take a majority person from the North which brought the issue of the Muslim-Muslim, which did not take into cognisance our diversity and our different people’s feelings because we have not really reached a stage where we don’t take consideration of all these factors,” he added.

The Bauchi governor also denied that there was a plan by the party to put the Governor of Oyo State, Seyi Makinde, forward as the presidential candidate and make him [Mohammed] the running mate.

“No, that’s not what we are planning. You see, I have learnt this thing because I have worked closely with the president when I was the minister of the FCT, when we came back in 2011 and formed a government.

“The president must be given the opportunity to choose his vice. I am not withdrawing because I want to prepare myself for the vice presidency.

“Of course, if it is within the sense of judgment of our party leaders and the presidential candidate to choose me, I’m ready, but certainly if I’m not given, I have said it to the public today, I’m ready to give whoever the party or the presidential candidate would emerge from the South to bring somebody if he is better than me,” Mohammed stated.

President Bola Tinubu of the APC had chosen a former governor of Borno State, Kashim Shettima, as his running mate for the 2019 presidential election.

But his decision attracted criticism from many Nigerians who kicked against a same-faith ticket — Tinubu and Shettima being Muslims from the South and North, respectively.

Already, the PDP has zoned its presidential ticket to the southern part of the country. (Channels TV)