Hakeem Baba Ahmed, a former Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu, has shed new light on one of the key factors that shaped the outcome of the 2023 presidential election. According to him, a significant portion of Peter Obi’s votes came from northern Christians who rejected the All Progressives Congress (APC) ticket for fielding both a Muslim presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu, and a Muslim running mate, Kashim Shettima.
In a recent interview featured on Channels TV, Baba Ahmed explained that the Muslim-Muslim ticket was met with strong resistance from Christian communities in the North, prompting many to rally behind the Labour Party’s candidate, Peter Obi.
“Tinubu comes up with Muslim-Muslim ticket, Northern Christians said ‘Ok, we will have our own candidate’ and they did,” Baba Ahmed stated. “Peter Obi got 6 million votes, a huge part of that came from the north and it is mostly about ‘we can’t have a ticket that has two Muslims on it.’ I think that the north is more sensitive to that now.”
