According to the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) rotation process, the North will produce the next President in 2023, according to Senator Chris Ekpenyong.
Recall that Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike and the Integrity Group have stated that the PDP presidential ticket should have come to the South following the Southern Governors’ resolution.
The Southern region, according to the Integrity Group, should produce the next President as a result of the zoning arrangement enshrined in the PDP Constitution.
In a statement issued on Friday, Ekpenyong, an ally of PDP presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar, said Wike and his allies are incorrect in claiming that the South must produce the party’s next president.
The lawmaker representing Akwa Ibom North-West Senatorial District explained that power is expected to shift to the South-East following Atiku’s tenure as a result of the opposition party’s zoning arrangement.
The lawmaker went on to say that of the PDP’s 16 years in power, the South spent more than 13 years and the North only two years and 25 days.
He said:
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 voted out in 2015, spent 16 years in power. Of the 16 years, the South used 13 years. Former President Umaru 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. 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 have to zone it to the South again? Logic demands that it goes to the North. Which region produced the last president under the PDP before the party lost power?
We all know it was the South. That means, we are right having our presidential candidate from the North. This is the strength of fairness that some Southern stakeholders are canvassing.”
Ekpenyong said it’s unfair to use the All Progressives Congress (APC) template in assessing PDP’s rotation arrangement, saying since Buhari is from the North, it would have been unfair if the party zoned its presidential ticket to the same North.
In APC it is a different case. Their last presidential candidate and current president of Nigeria is from the north. So, it would have been wrong to bring another presidential candidate from the north again, which is opposite from what ought to play out in the PDP. We are two different parties, with different ideologies and we can’t use the template of another party to carry out the activities in our party because it will amount to injustice.
Even based on the six geopolitical zones In our party, three have produced presidents, three are yet to produce. These are the North-East, North-Central and South-East. In the spirit of fair play, PDP Presidential candidate Alhaji Atiku Abubakar is from the North-East, meaning after him power will shift to the South-East and later come back to the North-Central. This is the definition of equity.
Two out of the three geopolitical zones of the south have produced presidents in our party. Chief Olusegun Obansanjo (1999-2007), South-West; Goodluck Jonathan (2010-2015), South-South; while none of the geopolitical zone in the north has had a complete tenure of four years except Umaru Yar’adua (2007-2009); North West. Before we stand in the house of God to talk about integrity, let us first define what equity, justice and fair play should be. Integrity should not be blackmailing people to do what you want.