Ahead of the 2023 general elections, some governors elected on the platform of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) are plotting to cede the presidential ticket of the party to the North, reports say.
One of the governors in the party who is from the Southern part of the country at the weekend revealed this to newsmen.
When asked if the presidential ambition of Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State was a joke, the governor – who asked not to be named – said he believed his counterpart in Kogi was serious as there had been a clamour by some of his colleagues in the Progressives Governors’ Forum (PGF) that the North retains the presidency after President Muhammadu Buhari’s tenure.
While saying the APC governors who wanted the party to zone the ticket to the North were in the majority, he, however, said the other governors from the South were watching the development and would make their stance known at the appropriate time.
When pressed further on why the governors wanted the North to retain the ticket, he said there were strong indications that the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) would pick its presidential ticket from the Northern part of the country and that the APC governors “felt the need to match them power for power”.
He said: “Honestly, I don’t know his (Bello) mind, but from what I have seen, I think he is serious about running for the presidency and he has a right to do so.
“Even if the APC zones the ticket to the South, that won’t stop him from exercising his right if he feels he has what it takes to swing the delegates’ votes to his side.
“But what I know is that some of them are canvassing that the North should still produce the candidate. That is absurd to some of us based on the fact that President Muhammadu Buhari, a Northerner, will be completing eight years in 2023.
“However, their argument is that with feelers that the PDP may zone its ticket to the North, it will be wise for the APC to do likewise so that they can match them power for power, or divide the votes in the region.
“Another argument they canvassed was that if the PDP presents a Northern presidential candidate and the APC fields a Northerner, there is a probability that the Northern electorate would queue behind their own.”
Corroborating the governor’s claim, another chieftain of the party from the South West said the body language of the president and some key APC leaders showed that the Southern part of the country may lose out in the presidential race.
On what would be the fate of the South East and South West, he said there were feelers that the South East may be considered for the vice-presidency slot while the South West may get the Senate Presidency slot.
Independent
