2023: PDP To Take Stand On Zoning As Committee Submits Report

The main opposition party, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), is poised to take a position on which geo-political zone will get it’s presidential ticket ahead of the 2023 election.

This comes as the party’s committee which reviewed the 2019 presidential election will submit it’s report to the National Working Committee (NWC) today.

The committee led by the Bauchi State governor, Bala Mohammed, is expected to provide reasons why PDP lost the 2019 presidential election and recommend which geo-political zone should get the party’s ticket for the 2023 contest.

The recommendation of the committee is however subject to the approval of the National Executive Committee (NEC), the second highest organ of the party.

The 14-member committee comprising two party chieftains from the six geo-political zones was set up in February 2020.

The committee in the course of its assignment, consulted former President Olusegun Obasanjo; former military President General Ibrahim Babangida; former Head of State; General Abdulsalami Abubakar; former President Goodluck Jonathan; former Senate President David Mark, among other leaders.

The debate over which zone should get the party’s presidential ticket in 2023 has been rife as it is perceived as a major determinant to the party’s performance in the much anticipated election.

Party leaders have been torn between retaining the 2019 arrangement which zoned the ticket to the North and throwing the contest for the ticket open to all zones based on merit.

The national chairman of PDP, Prince Uche Secondus, while fielding questions from journalists recently on the matter, explained that the party will take a position based on the recommendation of the Mohammed-led committee.

The Mohammed-led committee was modeled after the Senator Ike Ekweremadu-led committee which reviewed PDP’s loss in the 2015 presidential poll and recommended the zoning of it’s 2019 presidential election to the North.

It was on this basis that former Vice President Atiku Abubakar emerged the party’s presidential candidate after defeating 11 other Northern candidates.

Meanwhile, divergent reactions have trailed prospects that the North might retain the presidency in 2023.

Although the debate on zoning has raged for a while, Senator Ali Ndume recently stirred the hornet’s nest when he likened the North’s retention of power in 2023 to a third term.

But former deputy governor of Sokoto State, Murktar Shehu Shagari disagreed with Ndume.

Shagari told LEADERSHIP that as much as Ndume is entitled to his opinion like every Nigerian, rotational presidency remains a party matter and not a constitutional issue

He said, “Rotational presidency is not enshrined in our constitution, it is purely a party matter. Any of the political parties has the right to pick its presidential candidate from any part of the country. If the presidency goes to the North, it becomes third only if President Muhammad Buhari decides to contest.

“Other than that there is nothing wrong with the next president coming from the North in 2023. I honestly believe that merit, integrity and competence should be the criteria for being elected president rather than where the candidate comes from. I am confident that he will hand over to an elected president in 2023,” he said.

Former national chairman of the defunct Congress for Progressives Change (CPC), Rufai Hanga, also disagreed that  the North’s retaining power in 2023 amounts to third term.

Hanga while reacting to the issue, told  LEADERSHIP thus: “I certainly disagree with the notion that the North cannot retain power in 2023. First, we are still in a democracy. Secondly, we have a constitution that does not provide for rotational presidency. Also President Buhari has not done anything for the North.

‘‘However, it is a party affair, the APC and PDP can decide to zone the ticket to any zone. But I do not agree that the North should be excluded from the zoning arrangement,” he said.

When asked by our correspondent, the immediate past minister of communications, Adebayo Shittu, said “My approach to Good Governance is completely different from the general run. For instance, if I would contest for President, it should be because I have the potential of being the best, most capable, most efficient and most effective manager of men and materials for the optimal benefit of all Nigerians. Not because I am a Yoruba man or because I am a Muslim. The paradigm should begin to change if indeed, we seriously aspire to become a developed country within the shortest possible time.”

Reacting also, governorship candidate of the defunct ACN in Rivers State, Prince Tonye Princewill, told LEADERSHIP that the decision on which zone will get the presidency is a collaborative effort.

The APC chieftain said “Ambition is a powerful driver and it will not surprise me if we have some politicians who are unable to resist it. I have heard all of the talks about Presidency in 2023.

“Besides the fact that it is far too soon to discuss the next administration, let me point out that nobody who wants to go far, can do this alone. No zone, region, or constituency is an island. It takes collaboration. The South knows this and will undoubtedly be doing the needful at the appropriate time,” Princewill stated.

However human rights activists, Ankio Briggs, agreed that keeping the presidency in the North amounts to third term.

In her reaction she told our correspondent that, “A candidate of APC or PDP as far as  the candidate is of any of the 19 Northern States is a quest for 3rd term. 2023 candidate on any party should be from the South South that did only 4 years (2011 to 2015 elected) or  to  South East that is yet to serve the Nation as an elected President.

“South West have already served first tenure in 1999 to 2003 and second tenure from 2003 to 2007. Politicians should wake up to the commitment that Politics is a service to the people and not a career of inheritance,” she said.