Presidential hopeful and Former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar has given reasons why the clamour for political parties to zone their presidential ticket to the South-East ahead of the 2023 general elections may not hold water.
It would be recalled that political leaders from the South-East, including the apex socio-cultural group, Ohanaeze Ndigbo have asked all political parties to cede their 2023 presidential ticket to the region.
According to them, the zone should be allowed to produce the country’s next president “in the interest of justice”.
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Atiku, while addressing the Board of Trustees members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) at a meeting recently, said South had had more chances at the PDP ticket in the past than the North.
“Some say the South-East have not been given the chance. When I joined the Action Congress (AC) which my friend Bola (Tinubu) set up, he gave me a set of conditions for giving me the ticket, one of which was that I should make him the Vice President. I said no, ‘I’m not going to make you Vice President,’ instead, I took Senator Ben Obi,” He said.
He added, “In the party, we invented and formulated this zoning policy simply because we wanted every part of this country to have a sense of belonging and I personally have paid my dues on the issue of zoning.
“The many years of the PDP government eight years and six years, all of them were from the South. So, we should not be stampeded by the opposition party. They have a moral obligation which is inescapable.
“So, there is absolutely no reason they should say that there is a deliberate attempt to exclude the South-East in political participation or power sharing.”
“So I thought I should disabuse your mind and of course, as an enlightened political class, I don’t think there’s any deliberate policy to exclude anybody in this country.”