October 05, (THEWILL) — A vice presidential candidate is usually the making of a presidential candidate of a political party or the choice of a party caucus after a presidential primary has been held.
Vice presidential candidates are usually known for the art of subtle manoeuvring and cunning, as can be observed now in the polity ahead of the 2027 general poll. THEWILL gathered that some big wigs in major political parties in the country are already scheming for the VP ticket, first as a position and second as a launch pad for their presidential ambition in the 2031 elections.
According to checks, at least five of such politicians are jostling for the ticket in a way that is also shaping the 2027 presidential race in the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and the African Democratic Congress, ADC. Sources say the general political understanding among politicians to zone the presidential ticket to the South is fueling the struggle as all the aspirants are from the North.
Bala Mohammed of Bauchi State, who also chairs the PDP Governors Forum; former Governor of Sokoto State and current Senator, Aminu Tambuwal, ex-Kaduna Governor, Nasir El-Rufai; leader of a faction of the New Nigeria Peoples Party, NNPP, Rabiu Kwankwaso, who was the party’s presidential candidate in the 2023 election, former Zamfara State Governor and current Senator, Abdul’aziz Abubakar Yari and VP Kashim Shettima are all in play, according to THEWILL checks.
BALA MOHAMMED:
For someone who first unveiled his presidential ambition in 2022 when he contested the PDP’s presidential ticket in the 2023 general election, the recent zoning of the PDP’s presidential ticket to the South seems to have put paid to his ambition. After losing the ticket to former Vice President Atiku Abubakar in the party’s presidential primary in June 2022, Mohammed scrambled back to Bauchi and initiated a rerun governorship primary in which he was the sole candidate, contested and won the election for a second term in office.
Party sources say before the zoning of the party’s presidential ticket to the South, Mohammed was nursing the ambition to run again for the presidency. This time around though, he is open to running as VP alongside Seyi Makinde, the Oyo State Governor, who has openly declared his presidential ambition. Makinde re-echoed his ambition during a courtesy visit to the then Olubadan of Ibadan in waiting, Chief Rashidi Lagoja, who was eventually crowned on September 26, 2025, as HRM Arusa I. During the governor’s visit, Ladoja had asked the palace chiefs to support the governor’s ambition.
The point is whoever emerges presidential candidate of the party has Mohammed as a VP candidate in waiting, whether it is ex-President Goodluck Jonathan who has been wooed by some party leaders to rethink contesting the presidency again or Makinde. Both Jonathan and Makinde have the qualities that Mohammed says would strongly work in favour of the party in 2027: A Christian who would pair with a Muslim from the North in 2027.
In a recent interview with a national television, Mohammed admitted his willingness to accept the position of VP if the party nominates him for the position.
He said, “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 that will emerge from the South a chance to bring somebody else if he is better than me.”
Arguing that the party needs to be very sensitive to the religious divide in the country, he expressed the need for the party to have “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.”
Sources within the PDP disclosed to this newspaper that even Mohammed knows that among the five governors on the party’s platform from the North, he is eminently qualified for the VP post. Apart from Governor Ahmadu Usman Fintiri of Adamawa State, who is also doing a second term in office, other governors on the party’s platform from the North are Agbu Kefas of Taraba, Caleb Mutfwang of Plateau and Dauda Lawal of Zamfara. They are all first term governors and are likely to dump the PDP for the APC, as earlier reported by THEWILL because of the endless infighting at the party’s leadership.
Fintiri is currently the Chairman of the party’s National Convention Organising Committee, scheduled to hold in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital in November. He is not known to have shown interest in the presidency.
As part of his strategic move, Mohammed has been in the forefront of engaging with potential aspirants being considered by the party as a presidential candidate, from ex-President Jonathan to Labour Leader, Peter Obi and former Minister of Transportation, now ADC chieftain, Rotimi Amaechi, both of whom he said he is still wooing to come back to the party. Following the party’s zoning formula, the presidential ticket will return to the North in 2031, placing Mohammed in a prime position to emerge the party’s flagbearer.
RABIU KWANKWASO:
The former governor of Kano State, who recently disclosed that he is open to working with the APC, though on his own terms, is said to be eyeing the ruling party’s VP position as long speculated by the media. Saddled with a factionalised party, the New Nigeria Peoples Party, NNPP, on whose platform he contested the 2023 election, hit by defections by elected National Assembly members and cautious of the schemes of the rival APC in the state, as evident in the results of the recent by-election in which both parties won a constituency each, Dr. Rabiu Kwankwaso is said to contending with a bigger political gamble that may make or mar his political stature in the North if he remains complacent.
The death of ex-President Muhammadu Buhari has created a political vacuum in the North that is waiting for any formidable politician to fill. For now, former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar and Kwankwaso fit the bill. Sources say the emergence of ADC has given Abubakar a popularity that Kwankwaso fears would dwarf his image and relevance, even in Kano politics. In fact, a Kano-based party source confided in this newspaper that if Kwankwaso had not run as a presidential candidate in the 2023 poll, Abubakar would have swept the Kano votes as he did in four of the seven Northwest states, namely Kaduna, Katsina, Kebbi and Sokoto.
“In the attempt to fill the political gap left by former President Buhari’s death, politicians of Kwankwaso’s standing would want to share the limelight with any equally formidable politician and frustrate attempts to relegate him to secondary roles,” said a party source, adding, “Now that he said he is ready to work with APC, how he goes about it I cannot tell. But at least he has laid his cards on the table. 2027 is a long time away.”
VP KASHIM SHETTIMA:
President Bola Tinubu reshaped public thoughts about recent speculations on Vice President Kashim Shettima’s fate ahead of the 2027 general poll, while eulogising him during his 59th birthday on September 2, 2025. “I deeply appreciate your vibrancy, loyalty, partnership and support as my deputy. In choosing you then as a partner, I selected competence and other qualities that Nigeria could depend on,” Tinubu said in a glowing birthday statement.
But as the presidential spokesperson once remarked in a newspaper interview when asked about the speculation, the President will choose his deputy after the party’s presidential primary in 2026. For a president who has already been endorsed by all the organs of his party and stakeholders, that decision is still his responsibility to make.
Nonetheless, VP Shettima is said to have been unfazed by the prospect of losing his position, while the talk about his political future lasted. Some of President Tinubu’s men who were said to be behind the move showed their hands too early and therefore achieved counterproductive results. For now, everything appears calm, but like a source told THEWILL, 2027 is more than a long time in politics, giving both parties, especially the VP, enough time to deal their cards well and achieve the ambition of succeeding the President in 2031, if the party wins the 2027 poll.
AMINU TAMBUWAL:
As a former Speaker of the House of Representatives, two-term Governor of Sokoto State and an influential figure in the coalition that grew into ADC, Senator Aminu Tambuwal, representing Sokoto South Senatorial District in the National Assembly has whetted his appetite for the presidency twice and lost on both occasions.
In 2018, he contested at the PDP’s presidential primary held in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital and lost to Atiku Abubakar, who emerged the party’s candidate that year. He repeated the feat in 2022, but stepped down at the convention grounds to Abubakar, who, again, emerged the party’s candidate. In the 2018 primary, Tambuwal put up a good showing, having emerged second position with 693 delegate votes behind Abubakar who won with 1,532 votes. After the 2022 step down for Abubakar, Tambuwal remained an Abubakar loyalist.
Although Abubakar has clarified his statement in a recent Hausa Service BBC interview that he would run for the ADC presidential ticket, contrary to reports that he will step down for a younger person, Tambuwal is said to be waiting in the wings as a most likely VP candidate if a Southern candidate were to emerge victorious in the party’s presidential primary. The party has stated that, like other rival parties that have zoned their presidential slots, it would throw all positions open for contest. Senator Tambuwal is the Abubakar’s camp candidate for the VP position, should the latter fail to pick the plump position of the party for the 2027 polls, according to THEWILL checks.
NASIR EL-RUFAI:
In the same vein, the former Kaduna governor, who is the only one in the pack of VP hopefuls yet to openly aspire for or contest for the presidency, is also said to be eyeing the VP post, should a candidate from the South pick the ADC presidential ticket. Rotimi Amaechi and Peter Obi are said to be his preferred bets.
Although El-Rufai’s son, Bashir excited social media with his recent post that an Obi with “a cult-like followership” who “appeals across the youths and younger generation,” would win the 2027 election “if he fielded,” an unnamed but implied, “strong northern candidate,” sources say that Obi and El-Rufai have taken to each other like conjoined twins since the unveiling of the ADC. Remarkably, both are yet to resign from their political parties and join the ADC.
For all his perceived faults, the former Kaduna governor is said to be close to members of the aggrieved wing of Buhari’s Congress for Progressives Change, CPC, within the APC. His contention for a strong space within the vacuum created by the death of the former president places him in serious contention for the VP slot whether within the ADC or out of it.
ABDUL’AZIZ YARI:
The former Governor of Zamfara State, who represents Zamfara West in the Senate on the platform of the APC, wields a lot of influence among his colleagues at the National Assembly, according to THEWILL checks. The politician is stupendously wealthy. He doles out cash and gifts frequently to his colleagues in the National Assembly and politicians in the North-West as part of his outreach to shore up his political base. Yari’s wealth is allegedly linked to his business interest in mining in the north as well as tax consultancy services for the Federal Government.
Amos Esele is the Editor of THEWILL Newspaper. He has over two decades of experience on the job.
