2023: Why PDP Is Unwilling To Zone Presidency To South

A member of the Board of Trustees of the Peoples Democratic Party has revealed why the party is unwilling to zone its presidential ticket to the South, despite the clamour for power shift in 2023.

This comes after different socio-cultural groups have called on major political parties to zone their presidential tickets to a southerner in order for such to take over from President Muhammadu Buhari at the end of his second term in 2023.

The leaders of the two main parties in Nigeria, the ruling All Progressive Congress and the major opposition Peoples Democratic Party are yet to take definite stands on zoning the 2023 presidency.

Speaking about the zoning, a member of the PDP BoT from the north told The Whistler, the reason why the PDP would not zone its presidential ticket to the South.

“Who is a member of the party from the south who can deliver four states to the PDP in an election?” he asked while trying to explain the dilemma of the party.

He said, “It is not that PDP does not want a southerner to be president, but who is there in the south that can deliver more than one state?

“Is it Wike? Wike is a good man and he has done well, but can he deliver South-south? How many states does he have influence apart from Rivers?

“If we have somebody like Bola Tinubu from the south, someone who can deliver his zone, then we will be ready to zone the ticket to the south. But the truth is there’s no one like that from the south.”

He said the party had constituted a committee to look into zoning, adding that the committee would have strong debates on zoning.

Asked whether the party had decided to back ex-Vice President Atiku Abubakar who made a formal declaration for the presidency in Abuja on Wednesday, he said “No. Former heads of state and elder statesmen in the north have called and advised him to shelve his presidential ambition.

“They asked him to support a younger candidate and be a father figure, but the man has refused. You know, he’s similar to Buhari in that way, that nobody can talk to him.”