Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has pushed aside power shift as it leaves the ticket open for all aspirants irrespective of their states or geopolitical zones.
The party said it will not stop aspirants of northern origin from contesting its presidential ticket.
This revelation was made by National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Mr Debo Ologunagba, noting that the party would not stop anyone on the basis of age or where they come from
He said the country must be rescued from where it is today, stressing that where the next President would come from, should not be considered but the ability, experience and integrity to work.
He said, “We must rescue the country from where it is today, and in doing that, we do not have to think of where the next President would come from, but the ability, experience and integrity to work.
“In the PDP, persons from every part of the country will be allowed to contest, but we can only boast that the primary will be free, fair, transparent and credible. We cannot be talking about zones in deciding on who becomes the presidential candidate of the party.
“Everybody that qualifies to run and is interested will be allowed to run. Nobody will be stopped. We will be guided by the party’s and the country’s constitutions.
“We won’t shut anybody out of the electoral process. When the time comes, all organs of the party will however be involved in the decision-making process on the guidelines for the party’s presidential primary. These organs include the ward, local government, state, zonal executives, the National Assembly members, Board of Trustees and the National Executive Committee of the party.”
This implies that prospective aspirants from the North including former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar; a former Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki; Governor Bala Mohammed of Bauchi State, his counterpart in Sokoto State, Aminu Tambuwal, a former Governor of Kano State, Rabiu Kwankwaso, and others are free to contest the party’s presidential primary as against the clamour for power shift to the South.
The PDP had recently denied zoning the presidency to the North following a claim by former Niger State governor, Babangida Aliyu, that it had done so.
Meanwhile, a group, Vanguard for Justice had recently warned that the PDP risks mass defections if it fails to zone the 2023 presidency to Southern Nigeria.
The PDP support group claimed that the party was bent on zoning its presidential ticket to the North, a move it said might prompt high-profile defections in the South.
The group, in a statement by its Chairman, Emmanuel Nduka, submitted that zoning the presidency to the South would not only engender national unity, equity and justice, but was consistent with the mood of the nation.
The statement reads: “On Monday, January 17, 2022, governors elected on the platform of Nigeria’s main opposition party, the PDP conveyed a high-powered meeting in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital. The meeting was hosted by no other than the strongman of Rivers State, Governor Nyesom Wike, and presided over by the Chairman of the PDP Governors Forum and Sokoto State Governor, Aminu Tambuwal.
“According to the governors, they had converged to review the state of the nation, and chart a way forward, especially with 2023 around the corner. At the end of the meeting, the governors released a nine-point communiqué, which formed their resolutions. But beyond this, the party does not seem (cared) for 2023, or what may even precede it.
“The All Progressives Congress (APC), led by President Muhammadu Buhari, a northerner, has spent eight years in power. The PDP, as a party, is planning to take power back to the North again. This may prompt an already impending mass exodus of PDP members to the APC, being that they feel that the APC will zone presidential power to the South, which is the right thing to do.
“This is a wind that may blow very soon, and it will come as a rude shock to the PDP. More so, it may be the end of the PDP in Nigeria’s political space.”
