By DIRISU YAKUBU

For months, the argument was premised on the permutation that if

ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, picked its presidential candidate from the South for the 2023 general elections, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, would head in the opposite direction to pick its flag bearer.

As a result, it wasn’t unexpected when the early birds for the coveted ticket in the PDP were politicians of northern extraction like former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, Governor Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto State, his Bauchi state counterpart, Mallam Bala Mohammed, and former Senate President Bukola Saraki among others.

Pundits, who argued that the emergence of Dr. Iyorchia Ayu, a northerner, as National Chairman of the party at the 2021 elective convention meant that the PDP would go down South to pick its presidential candidate, were simply counseled not to be too optimistic.

The party, a school of thought reasoned, could pick a northerner, still provided the APC goes South to pick its candidate.

Events of the past few weeks have, however, shown the commitment of southern leaders of the party to close ranks to ensure that the zone does not yield the ticket to the North in 2023 like it did in 2019.

Governors Nyesom Wike of Rivers State; his Akwa Ibom counterpart, Mr Udom Emmanuel; former Senate President Pius Anyim; former President, Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, Mr Sam Ohuabunwa, and veteran journalist, Dele Momodu, all have their eyes on the PDP presidential ticket.

In a move interpreted as a strategy against Atiku, the governors are believed to be pushing for a younger candidate given the manner Bala Mohammed asked the former Vice President to take a back seat and rest from his decades of involvement in politics on account of age.

The South is home to eight PDP governors, made of up of Wike, Emmanuel, Duoye Diri (Bayelsa), Godwin Obaseki (Edo) and Ifeanyi Okowa (Delta). Others are Okezie Ikpeazu (Abia), Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi (Enugu) and Seyi Makinde (Oyo).

These governors, who call the shots in their respective states, Sunday Vanguard gathered, are rooting for a presidential candidate from the South and are calling on their northern counterparts to support the call.

Given the intensity of the opposition of southern governors to his aspiration, Atiku, having met with them at different times, has promised to do a single term if elected, preparatory to yielding the ground to a southerner in 2027.

But this has not swayed the determination of the southern leaders who insist that the former Vice President and his fellow northerners should accord the South respect.

The southern governors are said to be insistent on their position on the 2023 presidency, arguing that after eight years in the saddle by President Muhammadu Buhari, it would be unjust for the PDP to field another northerner.

This seemingly conundrum has left the Iyorchia Ayu-led National Working Committee (NWC) of the PDP unable to take a definite stand on which zone should be given the opportunity to produce the presidential candidate.

It would be recalled that the Bala Mohammed Committee empanelled to review the performance of the PDP in the 2019 presidential election and recommend the way forward in 2023, advised the party to throw the race open to both the South and the North.

Southern leaders are, however, not prepared to listen to any argument that would see it settle for the second fiddle.

It remains to be seen how the party handles this even as presidential hopeful from both South and North continue to press on for the highest office ahead of the polls.

Closing ranks

Meanwhile, analysts told Sunday Vanguard, at the weekend, that southern leaders were closing ranks on the issue of the two major political parties in the country (APC and PDP) zoning the 2023 presidency to the South after leaders/organizations from the region separately insisted that the top office should not remain in the North after Buhari’s eight-year tenure.

“Recent developments show that leaders from the South are unyielding in their quest to have the 2023 presidency zoned to the area. In fact, I have no doubt in my mind that the leaders are closing ranks”, an analyst told Sunday Vanguard.

“I want to believe that it is in recognition of the fact that the South would not give up on the decision that a southern should succeed President Buhari in 2023 that no one in the APC from the North has shown interest in the presidential race”.

South-South leader, Chief Edwin Clark, had issued a statement, last week, to ask Atiku, Saraki, Tambuwal and other northerners nursing presidential ambition ahead of 2023 to step down their bid in the interest of justice.

Clark, who warned that zoning the presidency between the North and the South is the best antidote to the break-up of Nigeria and the requisite for peace and unity in the country, said it was the turn of the South to produce the President in 2023 and not the North.

According to the elder statesman, zoning has been practised in the policy even before independence when Tafawa Balewa, in 1954, was Prime Minister and Nnamdi Azikiwe Governor-General.

Clark said, “Firstly, I wish to use this medium to advise my most respected Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chieftains in the persons of former Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, former President of the Senate, Dr. Bukola Saraki, Rt. Hon. Aminu Tambuwal, Governor of Sokoto State, and other PDP aspirants from the North, that, in the interest of maintaining the unity of this country to which they have contributed so much, re-consider their desire of wanting to contest for the presidential election in 2023.

“Both by the PDP Constitution and by convention, it is now the turn of Southern Nigeria to produce the President of Nigeria, in 2023, after President Muhammadu Buhari’s 8 years.

“To do otherwise is to invite chaos, which will lead to the disintegration of our dear country.

“One of the reasons the North opposed Chief Anthony Enahoro’s motion for independence in1953 was that they felt they were not equal to the South in education; that they were not in a position to produce proportional candidates who will run an independent government with the South because, at that time, they had only about four graduates.

“They subsequently walked out of the Parliament, went back to the North, and swore never to return to Lagos.

“That was what led to the Constitutional Conferences held both at the Lancaster House in London and at Ibadan, Nigeria, purposely to keep Nigeria one.

“The impression was that no one group or section of the country should dominate the government of Nigeria at the expense of other parts of the country”.

On his part, leader of the pan-Yoruba socio-political organisation, Afenifere, Pa Ayo Adebanjo, said any attempt to deny the South-East the presidency in 2023 would amount to a gang-up against the region dominated by Igbo.

Adebanjo, in a chat with Sunday Vanguard, said those opposed to Igbo President are discriminatory against the region.

His words: “If there is anything like power shift in Nigeria, it should go to the South-East. There is doubt about that, any other thing is just gang-up.

“There should not be any argument about that because the South-West has gotten it, the North has gotten, South-South has gotten it. You want the Igbo to remain in Nigeria but you want to discriminate against them.

“There should be no argument about where power should shift to, it should go to the South-East. Any other thing is gang-up.”

Also pushing ahead with the South-East presidential bid, apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, late last week, set up a committee to lobby critical stakeholders across the country to support the zone to produce the President in 2023.

The Political Action Committee is chaired by the Ohanaeze Ndigbo President-General, Amb George Obiozor, while the Secretary-General, Amba Okey Emuchay, would serve as Secretary.

Obiozor, who disclosed this in Enugu, said the job of the committee was to recognize all the critical stakeholders in the election and persuade them to support the South-East to produce the President for equity, justice and fairness.

He said, “This committee is a persuasion team. They will recognize those that are critical in the election from different parts of Nigeria and within our own group (South-East) because there may be those who are critical here but they don’t want to participate for one reason or the other.

“So we’ll encourage, persuade them and then among our people running for election, you advise those who want to be advised and those who don’t want to be advised you still try to advise them. But we are non-partisan, non-political.”

Of the six regions in the country, only the South-East has not produced the President.

Before the latest developments, leaders of thought from the southern and Middle Belt regions had taken a position on the 2023 presidency, saying it should be produced by the South.

Though the elders did not micro-zone, they warned that any political party that does not zone its presidential ticket to the South should not expect support from the four regions.

The decision was contained in a communique issued at the end of a recent meeting of the Southern and Middle Belt Leaders Forum (SMBLF) and chaired by Clark.

The communique also justified the need for the rotation of the presidency, arguing that due to the complexity of Nigeria, it was only fair to share power.

The communiqué read in part: “The meeting extensively discussed various issues on the state of affairs in the country, particularly; security situation, restructuring, preparations for the 2023 general elections and zoning.

“The extant constitution and structures of Nigeria which are grossly flawed and lopsided.

“Accordingly, Forum restates its demand for the fundamental restructuring of the country by enacting a new constitution that would enthrone equity, fairness and justice. It must be one nation, one system.

“Cites that the northern part of the country would have fully enjoyed the Office of the Presidency of the country for the full statutory period of 8 years by 2023, hence, the presidency should rotate to the South.

“Therefore, unequivocally, and in full resolve, call on all political parties in the country to find their presidential ticket to the south.

“Advises that any political party that does not zone its presidential ticket to the South should not expect support from the four regions.” (Sunday Vanguard)

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