The former Ekiti State governor, Ayodele Fayose, has kicked against the decision of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to throw the presidential contest open amidst calls for zoning of the presidential ticket to the Southern part of the country.
There were reports that the PDP national leadership had decided to throw the contest open for all aspirants to try their luck at the party’s primary election slated for later in the year.
However, the Chairman of the party’s zoning committee, Samuel Ortom, in a programme on national television earlier on Wednesday insisted that the decision has not been ratified by the party’s leadership.
Fayose, who featured in a Channels Television’s programme, Politics Today, vowed that he would never to drop his presidential ambition for anybody in the party.
He insisted the PDP must zone the ticket to the South.
The ex-governor said: “I don’t believe in not zoning this presidential ticket. I was a member of the zoning committee except for the last day that I picked up my form.
“All they said was ‘because the party ought to have started the process a long time, for reasons on the fact that some people have bought forms, maybe the party can find a way to work around consensus’. They never made that statement (on throwing the presidential ticket open).
Let me say to you, the only solution is zoning. The north can’t contest the primary — the one we had in Port Harcourt which was an all northern affair — and come and tell us that there won’t be a southern affair.
“I saw the people going around for consensus. Who will step down for who? Did you ask me to step down? I won’t step down.
“They said they want all of us to come and do consensus. I don’t know about them. I have taken my form today. I am not going to step down.
“Who knows if it is me that Nigerians want to vote for? Do you know the mind of Nigerians? Do you know who they want? Any meeting or anywhere they talk about consensus, as good as that language looks, it is undemocratic.
“It is Nigerians that will determine who will win the election. How did I win in Ekiti as a two-term governor, defeating two incumbents? Life starts from somewhere.
If I do not matter, why did you bring me here? Nigerians love me. I purposely went there to get this form. I will start to go to states to let them know. I am prepared for this onslaught. I’m going to contest this election.”
The trio of former Senate President, Bukola Saraki, Sokoto State Governor, Aminu Tambuwal, and his Bauchi State counterpart, Bala Mohammed, had met severally in recent days in a bid to forge a consensus agreement ahead of the PDP presidential primary.
