The volume of discordant tunes has been raised among bigwigs in the main opposition’s Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), over the zoning formula the party would adopt in the upcoming 2023 presidential poll.
It was gathered several stakeholders in the party are currently at loggerheads over the decision of the zoning committee to fling the 2023 presidential ticket open.
The New Diplomat had reported that the Governor Samuel Ortom-led 37-man committee recommended that the PDP throw its ticket open because of ‘exigency of time’.
It was gathered that the committee was unsure whether a southern candidate will be able to wrestle power from the APC in 2023. According to a leaked document, the committee based its recommendation on the high voter turnout in the North and the party’s determination to return to power.
However, an impeccable source who spoke with the members of the press said the situation in the party has begun to worsen over the report of the zoning committee.
According to the source, some members of the party are insisting that the presidential ticket be zoned to the South while some northern leaders are demanding that the ticket be thrown open with hope that a northerner would emerge as the party’s flag bearer.
Many members who are demanding that the ticket be zoned to the South are arguing that by 2023, President Muhammadu Buhari would have completed an eight-year tenure, which would translate to a total number of 11 years that the northerners have spent in power since the country returned to democratic rule in 1999.
Commenting on the situation, former Governor of Ekiti state and a presidential aspirant, Ayodele Fayose while speaking on a Channels Television’s programme insisted that the party’s ticket be zoned to the South.
Fayose, who was also a member of the zoning committee, said the recommendation wasn’t for the ticket of the party to be thrown open. Rather, what was suggested was that there should be consensus because many people had already bought forms and it would be wrong to scheme them out.
In his words, “I don’t believe in not zoning this Presidential ticket. I was part of the zoning committee. To me, they didn’t even say it like that. All that was said is that because the party ought to have started the process a long time for reasons that some people had bought forms, maybe the party should work with consensus.
“The last presidential primary in Port Harcourt was a northern affair. All the aspirants were from the North. So, when you talk about my not contesting the last time, I was told it was going to be a northern affair and that is why you had Saraki, Atiku, Tambuwal and all of them. There was no southerner. If we don’t begin to put things in perspective, our children will ask questions,” the former governor added.
The former governor said the northern PDP elements failed at the 2019 Presidential poll and had since lost their chance. He, therefore, maintained that 2023 must be the turn of the South.
He also faulted claims that only the North could provide the PDP with the needed number of votes to win the 2023 elections.
Fayose recalled that former Vice-president Atiku Abubakar won his home state of Adamawa by just 20,000 votes in the last Presidential election which Governor Tambuwal won in Sokoto by a tiny margin.
“Atiku won in Adamawa by less than 20,000 votes. Go to Sokoto, what was the voting difference? We lost in Kwara. Let us look at the figures. Who is the person that can win?” he asked.
Meanwhile, Director-General, PDP Governors Forum, and Director-General of Saraki Presidential Campaign, Earl Osaro Onaiwu, commended the zoning committee over the decision to throw the PDP presidential ticket for 2023 open to all aspirants regardless of zone.
He argued that the open ticket is the key to ensuring that Nigeria gets the best candidate to rescue the country.
“Indeed, the decision of the committee to jettison zoning of the presidential election is timely and historic. It affirms my strong belief that, the PDP remains the only party that puts national interests as its top priority.
“A few days ago, I argued on the need to jettison zoning at this material time in the history of our dear nation. These are perilous times in the existence of our country and we are in dire need of leaders with capacity and the wherewithal to rescue the country.
“I also challenged us as a people to take a microscopic view into the administration that was a product of zoning and see that such arrangements have never been of benefit to Nigeria, our beloved country. It has always been detrimental to growth and development of Nigeria,” Onaiwu said.
