By Azimazi Momoh Jimoh, Abuja.
Governors of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) from the Southern part of the country have insisted that the party’s presidential candidate must be from the south.Rising from an emergency meeting that dragged from Friday night to the early hours of Saturday, the governors said though they were committed to the unity of the PDP, the position of the Southern governors at their meetings in Lagos and Delta states in 2021 remained sacrosanct.The meeting was attended by six of the eight PDP governors from the Southern part of the country including Governors Nyesom Wike of Rivers State, Seyi Makinde of Oyo State, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu State, Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia State, Douye Diri of Bayelsa State and Udom Emmanuel of Akwa-Ibom State.Delta State governor, Ifeanyi Okowa and his Edo State counterpart, Godwin Obaseki were absent.“Our position is that first, we are committed to the unity of our party and we have worked hard to make sure that this party remains a strong and viable vehicle to rescue Nigeria come 2023,” Ikpeazu, who spoke on behalf of other governors, said.“Be that as it may, we want to draw your attention to the fact that we have agreed as Southern Governors in Lagos and also in Delta that this party has to respect the zoning principle as enshrined in our Constitution, and to that effect, we feel that the best thing to do is to zone the presidency to the South, and we stand on that position.”He said the southern governors “have not seen any reason to change our position, because the Party was founded on the basis of equity and justice. And we also think that equity and justice is an important pillar that will ultimately stabilize our politics towards our journey in rescuing Nigeria.
“According to him, there is nothing on the ground to show that zoning would not give PDP victory in 2023.The southern governors dismissed the position of the PDP’s zoning committee last Tuesday that the contest for the 2023 presidency be thrown open as speculative saying “We don’t want to work on speculation”“Let me tell you something, if you want to take a position of policy, you don’t look at problems in their face and take a decision. You make a decision and remain firm on that decision. We think what this country is lacking today is our ability to dispense equity and justice. It may be difficult, it may be a bitter pill but we need to stand with the truth,” Ikpeazu said.“See I speak and I want to reiterate the position of the Southern governors, it is not my duty to speculate on what others are doing. But you must ask yourself, what is the truth? What is it that if we do it today we serve with fairness of equity and justice.”Last Tuesday, the 37-member PDP zoning committee led by Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom, ended its meeting and announced that it had reached a unanimous decision which would be sent to the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the party.It was later found out that the committee members had serious arguments which resulted in some recommendations which included throwing the presidency open to all zones.
Further findings revealed that it also resolved to submit other options like zoning it to the southern part of the country and allowing the NEC of the party to take the final decision.But the committee has not submitted any report to the party’s national leadership since last Tuesday.
