Former Senate President and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential hopeful for 2023, Senator Anyim Pius Anyim, has warned the party against discarding zoning in choosing the 2023 Presidential flagbearer, saying the decision may collapse the party.
He said his concern about zoning is not personal but the need to protect the party against flouting its constitution.
“This is a constitutional matter. Some people may get away with it but in the meantime, it will weaken our party. This makes it a concern to some of us.”
Anyim, who also served as Secretary to the Government of the Federation at one time, spoke today, April 24, on the Political Roundtable on Mainland FM in Lagos.
The former Senate President said that for equity and fairness, the position must be ceded to the South and South East in particular.
“I have no personal concern about zoning but I have corporate concern about zoning because it is a constitutional matter within the PDP. So when an organization is not in a position to follow the constitution, the worry I have is that some people may get away with it in the interim but in the long term, it will weaken that organization and the organization will no longer have the power to criticize its members.
“So the fact that it is a constitutional matter in PDP, it makes it much more concern to some of us if it is not followed.”
Anyim who also spoke on the move by some Northern aspirants to come up with a consensus arrangement said that the elders of the South East have not initiated such discussion in the zone.
He said that the aspirants have met and are working together to bring the ticket to the South-East “because it is the turn of the region to produce the next President”.
The former Senate President said that while he would not compare himself with any of the aspirants, he has the national exposure and the cognate experience having presided over the Senate and headed the engine room of the presidency in the past.
“I am simply returning to the terrain I am familiar with. All my experience has been in Abuja. My constituency is national and I want to say that nationwide, my experience is cognate.”
Source: Daily Trust.
