From Victor Osula, Abuja
The opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has abandoned zoning and thrown the contest for its presidential ticket for the 2023 general elections open.
That is the decision of the Governor Samuel Ortom led Committee the party set up to resolved the matter which had threatened to split the party down the middle.
As a party which has zoning in its constitution, going ahead to turn its back on its law maean it had yielded to the heated controversy zoning has generated in the days before. Stakeholders of the party had taken different positions on zoning, with Iyioricha Ayu, National Chairman of the party, said had come to stay, while inaugurating the committee on zoning last week.
According to him, based on its zoning formula, the party had zoned the presidency to the South in 1999, with Olusegun Obasanjo taking the slot while the late Umaru Musa Yar’Ardua succeeded him before Goodluck Jonathan took the turn for the south again. Naturally, the position ought to go North. But the expediency of the moment, with voices from the south growing louder for a southern presidency by either party, the governing APC and opposition PDP, the party has to abandon the formula.
The PDP 37-member committee on Zoning said those seeking to contest the presidency on the platform of PDP should test their strength and popularity.
The committee in two previous meetings in Abuja could not agree on whether to Zone the presidential ticket to any part of the country due to pressure from aspirants from Northern and Southern regions of the country.
Similarly, the party’s Governor Bala Mohammed Committee that investigated why the party lost the 2019 polls also came up with the position two years ago, stating that throwing the ticket open was one of the best options to heal fracture and crisis in the party.
Already former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, the party’s 2019 presidential candidate, Governors Nyesom Wike, Emmanuel Udom, Aminu Tambuwa and Bala Muhammed have indicated their interest to contest the preisdency on the platform of the ticket. Atiku yesterday submitted his expression of interest form throw Chief Raymond Alegho Dopklesi, his campaign manager.
Other aspirants that have declared to run on the ticket of PDP include former Governors Peter Obi who was Vice Presidential Candidate of the party in 2019, Ayo Fayose and Senator Bukola Saraki.
