Presidency 2023: Why Northern APC Governors insisted on zoning to south at meet with Buhari

The All Progressives Congress (APC) northern governors at a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday before the meeting of the governors at Kebbi House, Abuja, had insisted on zoning of the party’s presidential ticket to the south, declaring that they would only support a southern presidential aspirant at the primaries for the  party’s 2923  presidential candidate.

Chairman of the Northern Governors Forum,  Governor Simon Lalong of Plateau State, in a media interaction at the State House, Abuja, after the meeting with the President, asserted that the memo that leaked last Saturday portrayed the main decision of the northern governors, which he said they were at the State House to formally  affirm the decision to the President.

Lalong said that President Buhari did not anoint any presidential aspirant  as  consensus candidate of the party. He said that the President had only suggested to the APC governors to meet with the National Working Committee (NWC) to resolve the issue of a consensus candidate through democratic means.

Lalong noted that the decision of the APC governors to return power to the South was to ensure equity, peace, and unity in the country.

APC governors present at the meeting include Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State, Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano State, Aminu Masari of Katsina, Abdullahi Sule of Nasarawa State, Abubakar Bello of Niger State, Bello Matawalle of Zamfara State, Inuwa Yahaya of Gombe, Babagana Zulum of Borno, Simon Lalong of Plateau, Atiku Bagudu of Kebbi, and Mai Mala Buni of Yobe.