Bola Tinubu, 70, widely credited with shaping Nigeria’s commercial hub Lagos, will lead the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) into next February’s presidential election but he faces the tricky task of choosing a running mate and navigating Nigeria’s complicated religious and ethnic permutations.
With power usually rotated between the north and the south, which are respectively dominated by Muslims and Christians, Tinubu, a southern Muslim, has to decide if he will seek a Christian politician from the north — a limited pool — and risk losing votes in the region, or settle for another Muslim, possibly alienating southern Christian votes.
This conundrum has not been made easier by the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), which has former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, a Muslim from the north as its flag bearer and is expected to pick a Christian vice from the south.