A chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Bode George, has warned the parties against leaving its 2023 presidential ticket open for all members to contest.

George who acknowledged the necessity for the party to ensure the right candidate is fielded to vie for the highest office in the land, stressed that it is equally important to ensure that such a position is zoned to a particular region.

“Yes, it is important to look at the characters of those who want to be president, but it is mandatory, it is legitimate for the party to say yes, this is zoned to the South or to the North; but to leave it wide open is combustible,” George said during an interview on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics.

His remark came against the backdrop of the controversy trailing the zoning of the PDP’s presidential ticket as activities build up ahead of next year’s polls.

While aspirants from the North seek to fly the party’s flag, their southern counterparts have continued to demand that the PDP’s presidential candidate emerge from the region.

Amid the debate that the PDP has produced a southern president for 14 years of its 16-year reign, George, a member of the PDP Board of Trustees (BoT), insisted that the party should zone its ticket to the South.

“Whatever has been in the North after eight years must come to the South; whatever has been in the South for the last eight years must go to the North. It guarantees that commitment, it guarantees that oneness, it guarantees that you have a sense of belonging to this country called Nigeria.

“I am looking at now as an engineer, there is a political equation; when they conceptualize this idea, nobody in their wildest dream thought there could be another political party that could produce the president.”

According to the PDP chieftain, it is standard that zoning and rotation will be the heart of the party, and like its spinal cord that can lead to its death or make it cripple if broken.

“When you now say you want to throw it (zoning) away, are you telling Nigerians that it is only in certain parts of the country that you have people who have the competence or the courage to rule Nigeria? How can there be peace?” he questioned.

“My best friend is still a Fulani man and I have no qualms about that, but justice, fairness, and equity must be the dictating norms for our party going forward.

“Are you saying we don’t have anybody in the southern part? What we are telling people (is that) we have no right as a party to tell any individual (that) you cannot contest, because it will be illegal.”

Former two-term governor of Borno State, and a frontline national chairmanship aspirant of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Ali-Modu Sheriff, has withdrawn from the race.

Sheriff, who spoke at a news conference on March 20 in Abuja, said that he withdrew from the race to respect the party and President Muhammadu Buhari’s decision to zone the position to the North Central.

“I am sure that most of you have been following the trends of activities of our party, the APC within the last 10 days or so.

“The party has taken a position that the position of its national chairman should go to the North Central, meaning it is exclusively zoned to contestants of the zone.

“The President is the leader of the party and he has taken a position. I have always told you that I will contest if the position is zoned to my zone.

“That has been my statement always, and today they have taken a position. I respect the president as a person and as a president, he is my leader, therefore, I do not want to oppose him in any way or form,” Sheriff said.

The former Borno State governor said that the president and the party’s leaders must have a reason for allowing the zoning of its chairmanship to the North Central.

“I have led a party: the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), I am a founding father of this party. I was the Chairman of Board of Trustees (BoT) of the All Nigerian People Party (ANPP),” he said.

He added that he therefore, knew the procedure and processes of a political party. Sheriff while saying that he would abide by the party’s decision to exclusively zone its chairmanship position to the North Central, added that this was however, not a final decision.

According to him, he may still contest in case if the party rescinds its decision between now and Friday, and throws the race open for all.

He explained that normally, zoning revolved around an individual, adding that it was however, not done in a vacuum.

“And in party Congresses and Convention, there is what is called a unity list, on the last day of the convention, when the leaders make up their mind, they will bring out one list.

“And in that respect, the list will be followed by the participants because parties are made up of men and women who are also coming from the zones and states,” he explained.

Sheriff maintained that he would, however, not offer himself for an election that had clearly been zoned out of the North East.
He thanked the party members, stakeholders, and Nigerians generally, who had been with him through his campaign across the country in the last two years.

According to him, his campaign has resonated all across the country with a lot of people showing interest, adding that he was withdrawing from the race because he wanted to follow the rule of law, saying that it was not correct for anybody to do otherwise.

“I Ali-Modu Sheriff, will not offer myself for the contest of the APC national chairmanship position slated for Saturday, March 26, because it has been zoned out of my zone.

“I am from the North-East. North Central where the position had been zoned to is made of Kogi, Kwara, Benue, Nasarawa and Plateau, these are the places where the party’s next national chairman will come from.

“Borno is North-East of Nigeria. I want you to communicate to all our followers, men and women across the country so that they do not expect to see my name on the ballot paper.

“But if the party changes its mind between today and Friday and says everybody can contest, within 12 hours one can fill a form.

“But as long as the position is zoned to the North Central. I’m not going to be party to that,” he stressed.

The APC National Convention has been slated for March 26, to elect new national executives to manage the party’s affairs.

The party is currently being managed by a Caretaker and Extra-ordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC). So far, seven aspirants had bought the APC Expression of Interest and Nomination forms at the cost of N20 million to contest its national chairmanship position.

The aspirants include: Malam Saliu Mustapha, a former Deputy National Chairman of the defunct Congress for Progressives Congress (CPC), and George Akume, Minister of Special Duties and Inter-Governmental Affairs.

Others are; Sen. Sani Musa, Tanko Al Makura and a former Governor of Zamfara, Abudulaziz Yari, among other aspirants, who have also purchased the forms.

Source: NAN.

A chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), in Edo State, Prince Kassim Afegbua, has advised the former Nigerian Vice-president, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar to quit the stage and stop a sense of entitlement of being President of the country.
In a statement today, March 20, Afegbua said: Alhaji Atiku Abubakar should quit the stage at this time and allow justice to prevail.
According to him Nigerians are looking forward to the PDP to get it right this time by fielding a candidate from the South.
“This position is an irrevocable one that cannot be compromised by any interplay of forces against the provisions of Article 7 of the PDP constitution.
The statement is reproduced here: “I have cautioned the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, for the umpteenth time, that it will be sacrilegious and morally reprehensible to continue to indulge Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and other Northern aspirants in the race on who emerges the Presidential candidate of the party for the 2023 election.
“I have repeatedly said that for the sake of justice, equity and fairness, the ticket should be ceded to the Southern part of the country.
“This is how to promote party cohesion, unity and oneness of purpose. It was in realisation of that, that the Southern axis allowed their Northern brothers to take a shot at the presidency alone and all alone in 2019.
“Now that it should be the turn of the South, you see the leadership of the party talking with its tongue in cheek.
“Talking about 2023, I read somewhere that Alhaji Atiku Abubakar said PDP would go into extinction in 2023 if they didn’t get it right. How wrong?
“The PDP has come to stay as a viable political party that will endure the test of time.
“The fact is, once Alhaji Atiku is beaten at the party’s primaries, he will surely go into extinction and run away to his usual destination; Dubai.
“There is no sincerity of purpose. What you see is a culture of desperation and huge sense of self entitlement as if the party was built or created for him.
“Only last week, the party talked about setting up a zoning committee to look into the issue, the following day, Alhaji Atiku ambushed the party by purchasing the nomination form. Who does that? Where is the honesty and sincerity of purpose? Why wouldn’t he wait for the zoning committee to be composed, meet and come up with a decision?
“He has also set 23rd of March for his official declaration at the Conference Centre without waiting for any position of the party.
“Still talking about extinction, when Alhaji Atiku left PDP in 2007 to contest in another party, the PDP still won the Presidential election and became stronger in form and stature.
“Shortly after, he returned to the PDP again. In 2011, Alhaji Atiku also contested the primary in PDP and he was defeated by President Jonathan.
“He left the party and contested in another party, he still failed woefully. He later joined forces with the merger committee that gave birth to the APC and contested the primaries in Lagos with the incumbent President in 2014. He was beaten flat at the Lagos convention of the APC. Yet, PDP remained strong.
“Aside from losing the presidency, PDP was still able to retain 16 Governorship positions across the country.
“The party never went into extinction, instead it has continued to remain the last hope of the common man.
“Alhaji Atiku returned to PDP realising that his journey in APC would not give him opportunity to contest the 2019 Presidential election.
“Flowing from this narration, aside from age, Alhaji Atiku has not been consistent with the PDP. He’s driven by his ambition always and not the growth of the party to deepen democracy.
“This was how President Buhari pleaded that he should be given opportunity in 2015 to rebuild Nigeria, now we have seen the albatross that has become our plight.
“In 2019, Alhaji Atiku bulldozed his way and emerged the party’s Presidential flagbearer.
“After the election, he couldn’t even wait for us to prosecute the project at the tribunal, he bolted away to Dubai. That was the last we saw him, except for now that he saw another Presidential contest coming, he suddenly emerged from the blues and wants the ticket to be ceded to him against the run of play.
“So, with or without Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, the PDP, as an organic party, has remained strong, viable and formidable.
“It is presently the only hope of the common man following APC’s underperformance in the last 7 years.
“Nigerians are looking forward to the PDP to get it right this time by fielding a candidate from the South.
“This position is an irrevocable one that cannot be compromised by any interplay of forces against the provisions of Article 7 of the PDP constitution.
“Alhaji Atiku Abubakar should quit the stage at this time and allow justice to prevail.
“I am very sure he will run away to Dubai again once he loses out.”