The Forum of Serving and Former House of Representatives members, has advised the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to jettison the idea of zoning the 2023 presidential ticket to a particular part of the country.
Mr Mukhtar Ahmed, a spokesperson for the group said this at a news conference in Abuja on Thursday, urging the party to allow all zone to contest the ticket.
Ahmed said that allowing all zones to contest would enable PDP to present the best candidate for 2023 presidential election.
He said that the ongoing debate about zoning was a calculated attempt to distract the party and advised it to rise above sentiments.
He said that PDP should be more concern about candidates that can deliver and give the nation good governance, which had being the strategy of the founding fathers.
“In a democratic setting such as ours, particularly so in our very democratic PDP, zoning and rotation at no time in our history has taken the place of the democratic and constitutional to seek any elective office, including the presidency.
“Even when the founding fathers of the party were alive, Alhaji Abubakar Rimi was allowed to have his say and the leaders and party members, through their votes, had their way.
“The power to decide always is allowed to lie with the people, that is why our slogan is: power to the people! Let the people decide always.
“What mattered most to the founding fathers and leaders is getting the right candidate who is sellable, formidable and has capacity to assure good governance and promote democracy,” he said.
Ahmed added:“Northern leaders at a time and based on the decision to promote equity, fairness and justice within the party allowed for power rotation between North and South, hence, President Olusegun Obasanjo’s eight years in office.”
He said that the choice of Obasanjo then was strategic, as PDP founders and leaders believed that he would win the election and power would be handed over to him because of his military background.
He added that Obasanjo was also sellable to all Nigerians and detribalised.
He said that for the sake of equity and justice, no zone should be denied the opportunity to contest.
“Unfortunately, Obasanjo handed over to late President Musa Yar’Adua, who unfortunately spent only two years and answered the call to the great beyond.
“President Goodluck Jonathan thereafter, took over and spent six years which made the South to have 14 years in power at the presidential level.
“This is why in 2019, leaders of the party in their great wisdom, zoned the ticket to the North.
“If the candidate had won and spent four years, the North would still have had only six years of 20 years of PDP rule,’’ he said.
Ahmed said that where then was the equity, fairness and justice within the party in denying the North the opportunity to vie for the presidential ticket in 2023.
“We, leaders of the party from the defunct Northern region, are not unmindful of the fact that South East, especially, has a major claim to the presidential ticket within the party.
“However, we are also aware that some parts of the former Northern region like the entire Middle Belt in the North Central and the North East are major claimants of not having been in the saddle since the return to democracy rule in 1999,’’ he said.