In an interview on Symfoni TV, Daniel Bwala, Special Adviser to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on Policy Communication, distanced himself from the kind of regional voting predictions that had begun to dominate political conversation, pushing back against the notion that any individual or group could credibly speak for an entire region’s electoral preferences.
Bwala was clear and upfront about where he stood on the matter of ethnic politics. “I don’t play ethnic politics,” he said, establishing his position before diving into the specifics of what had prompted his remarks.
He explained that he had been asked in a previous interview to respond to comments by Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, who had reportedly suggested that northern voters would not support Peter Obi. Bwala said he had rejected that framing entirely. “I don’t like ethnic politics where you say the northern people will not vote for this person,” he stated, before laying out two clear reasons why such a claim rang hollow. “Number one, you’re not a spokesman for the North, and then number two, you are not in a position to command the vote,” he said, arguing that no single voice could legitimately claim to represent the voting intentions of an entire region.
He backed his position with electoral evidence, pointing to Obi’s actual performance in the North during the last presidential contest. “Peter Obi in 2023 got some votes from the North,” he noted, using the fact to reinforce his broader conclusion. “So every Nigerian who is playing politics can get votes anywhere,” he said, making the case that Nigerian voters were more than capable of crossing ethnic and regional lines when they found a candidate worth supporting……See More
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