Presidency 2023: Bode George admonishes PDP of dangers of abandoning zoning or leaving ticket open  

An elder statesman and member of the Board of Trustees of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Olabode George, has cautioned the party against the consequences of abandoning zoning or leaving the 2023 presidential ticket open to all aspirants.

Bode George has over time insisted that the PDP must sponsor a competent and capable presidential candidate in the 2023 elections. He also argued that in ensuring the party fields a candidate who has the capacity to change Nigeria and make the economy and security work again,  the PDP will also consider zoning the presidential ticket to a region.

Bode George was cited to have said in a recent media interaction: “Yes, it is important to look at the characters of those who want to be president, but it is mandatory, it is legitimate for the party to say yes, this is zoned to the South or to the North; but to leave it wide open is combustible.”

Bode George discountenanced that argument on the power equation of the PDP that the party produced two southern presidents for 13 years in PDP’s 16 years in power from 1999 to 2015.  This he said, cannot be the basis of zoning the 2023 presidential ticket to the north, making reference to the eight years of President Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Bode George was, again, cited to have argued: “Whatever has been in the north after eight years must come to the south; whatever has been in the south for the last eight years must go to the north.

“It guarantees that commitment, it guarantees that oneness, it guarantees that you have a sense of belonging to this country called Nigeria.

“I am looking at now as an engineer, there is a political equation; when they conceptualise this idea, nobody in their wildest dream thought there could be another political party that could produce the president.”

Bode George maintained that zoning and power rotation has been entrenched in the PDP as the knob of unity and cohesion; saying that abandoning zoning could lead to the death of the PDP or cripple the party.

Bode George had declared: “When you now say you want to throw it away, are you telling Nigerians that it is only in certain parts of the country that you have people who have the competence or the courage to rule Nigeria? How can there be peace?

“My best friend is still a Fulani man and I have no qualms about that, but justice, fairness, and equity must be the dictating norms for our party going forward.

“Are you saying we don’t have anybody in the southern part? What we are telling people, we have no right as a party to tell any individual you cannot contest, because it will be illegal.”

Meanwhile, the PDP has commenced the sales of forms for the 2023 general elections without resolving the zoning controversy. However, the party has appointed a second committee to consider zoning and the implications if the presidential ticket is thrown open.