Presidency: Wike reveals what PDP will do in 2023

Following agitations from different quarters that the Presidency should be zoned to the South in 2023, the Rivers state, Nyesom Wike, has said the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) is focused on winning the 2023 presidential elections and not relying on zoning.

Wike who disclosed this on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily programme on Tuesday, explained that only the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) can afford the luxury of zoning.

Wike explained that when he contested the Rivers governorship election in 2015, there were suggestions he should not be given the PDP’s ticket, as he is from the same zone as his predecessor, Rotimi Amaechi. But he was eventually allowed to run out of necessity.

“As an opposition party, we look at all variables. What will make us win the election (comes) first. That is what is important to us. The ruling party can say that (zoning) but for the opposition party, there are variables.

“So, it will be wrong for me as an opposition person to say this must be done now. No, I will not do that,” Wike said.

President Muhammadu Buhari’s nephew and ally, Mamman Daura, stirred up controversy last week, when he stated that zoning should not determine who emerges the next President in 2023.