By Clifford Ndujihe

AS some stakeholders of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in the North-East argue for the zone to produce Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s running mate, 2022 Presidential Aspirant, Dr. Ibrahim Bello Dauda, has been identified as a good candidate for the slot .

The zone also has the likes of Senate President Ahmad Lawan; Secretary to the Government of the Federation, SGF, Boss Mustapha; and former House of Representatives Speaker, Yakubu Dogara.

Since he is from the South-West, in his 70s, and from the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN bloc, some observers said that Tinubu needs a younger person and somebody from another leg of the founding pillars of the APC, to beat Alhaji Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in the 2023 presidential poll.

In the North, a running mate to balance the various equations is expected to come from the Congress for Progressive Change, CPC, bloc led by President Muhammadu Buhari.

One of those, who has joined the race for the vice presidential slot is Dr. Ibrahim Bello Dauda, who jostled for the APC presidential ticket but pulled back when signals revealed that the President and the party would settle for power shift to the South.

Bello, 50, a management consultant, was in the trenches with President Buhari in the All Nigerian Peoples Party, ANPP, and CPC. Between 2003 and 2007 he served in Buhari’s ANPP as the Plateau State Coordinator of The Buhari Organisations, TBO, a support group for the party’s presidential candidate. Later, he worked within the CPC founded by Buhari in 2009 as a vehicle to vie for the presidency in the April 2011 elections. Dauda had in CPC served as a member of the National Convention Committee in 2013; executive of the national registration and membership committee in 2013.

He, subsequently, moved with the CPC to form APC in 2013. He served in 2014 as national secretary of the Buhari Support Group Centre, BSGC, and national coordinator of the Buhari Support Organisations, BSO. Later, in 2019 he became national secretary of the APC women and youth presidential campaign team; and member of the support groups directorate of the APC presidential campaign council.

A Kanuri, whose lineage traces roots to Gora town in Shani Local Government Area of Borno State, Dauda began life in Jos North area of Plateau State, where he was born on June 3, 1972. With OND and HND in Financial Management and Accountancy, he obtained his doctorate degree in Business Administration from the Cornerstone University in Israel, and has no fewer than 27 professional and academic certifications from Nigeria, several African countries, America and other parts of the world.

Currently, he is the president of Platinum Vault Group of Companies that he co-founded in 2015. The firm has blossomed into 10 companies with tentacles in oil and gas, agriculture, mining, power generation, telecommunications, logistics, construction, business and management consulting.

Also known as El-Dabi, he is president of the Almajirai Empowerment Foundation, AEF, established to assist millions of Almajiri children in Nigeria and help equip them with education, reorientation and skills.

His supporters said if chosen, Dauda and Tinubu will have the same combination as the ticket that produced the June 12 1993 free, fair and presidential election won by late Chief Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola.

“Like Abiola’s running mate, Ambassador Babagana Kingibe, Dr Dauda hails from the Kanuri stock in Borno.

A marriage of Yoruba and Kanuri gave birth to June 12 in 1993. Will the same combination work 30 years later in 2023?