Indications emerged on Sunday that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) will adopt the report of its committee set up to review why the party lost in the 2019 presidential election and recommend solutions on how the party would return to power in 2023.
The 14-member committee, headed by Governor Bala Mohammed of Bauchi State, had recommended that the presidential ticket of the party be thrown open to all regions instead of resorting to a zoning arrangement, a position which has greatly angered Southern stakeholders in the party.
But speaking in a chat with Daily Independent, a chieftain of the party who is a member of the Board of Trustees (BoT), said the party would adopt the committee’s report as there is “a great likelihood that majority of PDP stakeholders want the ticket to be zoned to the Northern part of the country”.
According to him, in the spirit of justice, equity and fair play, it would be unfair to consider the South again for the ticket having spent over 13 years out of PDP’s 16-year reign in power.
“The committee has done its job and it is left for the stakeholders to look at the recommendations they have made dispassionately and come up with a position, but I can tell you with certainty that the report will be adopted.
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“They are arguing that rotational presidency is the way to go based on the arrangement of the party’s constitution.Fair enough, yes, but current circumstances will not make that possible because that arrangement was altered in 2010 during the Yar’Adua presidency.
“Now, the PDP, before we were pushed out in 2015, has spent 16 years in power. Of the 16 years, the South used 13 years and some days. Former President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, who took the Northern slot in 2007, only spent two years and 25 days before his demise.
“His deputy, Goodluck Jonathan, from the Southern part of the country, completed their tenure and had another four years (which Yar’Adua may have gotten if he had contested for a second term).
“With that, the South used 13 years and some days out of the PDP’s 16 years’ reign. So, with this explanation, on what grounds will the PDP zone it to the South again? Logic demands that it goes to the North. Which region produced the last president and presidential candidate under the PDP before the party lost power? We all know it was the South. That means, it should go back to the North if it is on the strength of fairness that some Southern stakeholders are canvassing.”
