The Labour Party’s vice‑presidential candidate, Datti Baba‑Ahmed, warned that the more than 1.9 million votes cast for President Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retired) in Kano State during the 2015 election will not be replicated by any candidate in the upcoming polls. In that election, Buhari of the All Progressives Congress defeated the Peoples Democratic Party’s Goodluck Jonathan with 1,903,999 votes in Kano, while Jonathan received only 215,779.
Speaking on Channels Television’s special election programme “The 2023 Verdict,” Baba‑Ahmed said, “The northern Nigerian votes that were expected to make up the difference for the other two runners‑up are not going to materialise. The heavy punchers—Kano, for example—are now a watershed compared to what their votes used to be. In 2015, the 1.9 million votes from Kano were a decisive blow from Buhari to Jonathan, and nobody will achieve that in Kano now.”
He identified other competitive northern zones as Kaduna and Katsina. According to Channels, Baba‑Ahmed also cited several factors working in his party’s favour: the rise of youth participation in his home state of Kaduna, growing awareness of national unity, and the presence of non‑indigenes throughout northern and central Kaduna. “We have pulled a lot of weight beyond the comprehension of the two runners‑up,” he added.
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