Zoning: PDP Chieftain says Presidential ticket should go to North

Lawal Usman, a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), says the party must zone its presidential ticket to the North for the 2023 general elections for strategic reasons of fairness and equity.

Usman, popularly called ‘Mr LA’, said this when he spoke with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Zaria on Sunday. “For the strategic interest of the party and the nation, the PDP must zone its presidential ticket to the North in 2023.”

“For justice and equity, the North should be allowed to produce the president in 2023 under the PDP. The PDP was at the helm of affairs in Nigeria for 16 years, out of these, the South-west ruled for eight years under former President Olusegun Obasanjo, the South-south ruled for six years through former President Goodluck Jonathan.

“The entre North consisting of North-central, North-east and North-west only ruled for two years under late President Umar Yar’Adua.”

Mr Usman, also a former Kaduna Central Senatorial candidate, said that the PDP had more supporters in the North than in any part of the country.

“The population of the PDP supporters in the North-west, North-east and North-central is enormous and should be considered in zoning the presidential ticket. Added to this is the fact that the North has a traditional alliance with the South-east which dates back to early independence days.

“Strategically, for PDP to survive, we must win the presidential election in 2023 and this can only be done if we give the North the ticket. This is not because the North has the best candidates, no it is not, there are qualified people all over the country, but for strategic reason of winning the election we must zone the ticket to the North. I believe that the PDP will win with landslide victory if it zone the ticket to the North,” he said.

Mr Usman said that the PDP had been repositioned by elders at the November National Convention in Abuja.

“Absolutely, the party elders used party mechanism to reposition the party by bringing together all warring factions and aggrieved people, this was done in the overall interest of the party and Nigeria as a whole.

“This is because there must be a party in place before you can start thinking of how to go for an election. They were able to put everybody together. It was a great job done by the party elders.

“The PDP is actually back and even stronger than before, to face the All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2023,” he said.

Suzan O/NAN