‘PDP May Zone 2023 Presidential Ticket To North’

Indications have emerged that the main opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), may leave its presidential ticket open for any zone to contest for ahead of the 2023 election.

It was gathered that some politicians are pushing for the PDP to zone its ticket to the north with the belief that the region stands a better chance of wrestling power from the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Naija News however reports that politicians from the southern part of the country are mounting pressure on the opposition party to zone its ticket to the region.

It was also gathered that the PDP is pressured from the choices of other political parties, particularly the APC which has resolved in principle to zone the presidency to the South after President Muhammadu Buhari’s eight years in 2023.

A party source, familiar with the development, told Vanguard that out of the PDP’s 16 years reign, the South had been ahead of the North.

The PDP source noted that in 1999, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, a southerner, spent eight years in office before the late Umaru Yar’Adua, a northerner, took over the reins of power, spent two years and 341 days.

Yar’Adua’s death paved the way for Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, a southerner, who went on to complete the term and subsequently ran another four years in office.

This, sources claimed, was the reason the PDP leadership could neither explain nor defend the choice of a southerner as its next presidential candidate, regardless of the choices available to other interests.

A PDP source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity said: “It is, therefore, cheeky and outright mischief for anyone to factor in the military era, which we all consider an aberration as part of the time for either of the zones.

“The nation started on a clean slate in 1999 and the arithmetic thereof is valid in the sharing formula.”

The source, however, stated that if the choice was left open, no presidential aspirant from the South would give the idea a shot.