The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has scheduled the meeting of its National Convention Committee on Zoning, for Wednesday, September 22, in Enugu State.
The Committee headed by Enugu State Governor, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, is expected to take critical decisions on the zoning of offices for the October 30 and 31 National Convention of the opposition party.
The meeting was announced by the Chairman of the National Convention Committee of the party, Ahmadu Fintiri, the Adamawa State Governor, who called on the Ugwuanyi committee to hasten up the zoning of the offices.
The meeting, according to insiders, is also expected to throw open its presidential ticket to all the six geopolitical zones since it might have resolved to keep its national chairmanship in the South.
Though there has been a clamour that the presidential ticket be specifically zone to the south in line with the agitation from the southern governors, the party might adopt the position of the Governor of Bauchi State, Bala Mohammed, whose committee reviewed the outcome of the 2019 presidential election.
The Mohammed committee had recommended that on the “basis of equity and fairness as well as calibre of Nigerians believed to be capable of being the president, the ticket should be thrown open.”
The committee had anchored its position on the fact that across the land, Nigeria boasts good hands capable of bailing the country “out of her current quagmire.”
Mohammed, had said when tasked on the position:
“In line with certain unwritten conventions of the nation’s history, many people think that, for fairness and equity, the North-East and South-East geo-political zones that have had the shortest stints at the Presidency, should be given special consideration, in choosing the presidential flagbearer of the party, for the 2023 elections.
“While we admit that this is a strong argument, we should not lose sight of the fact that Nigeria is endowed with many capable and very experienced leaders in every part of the country.
Moreover, the exigencies of the moment demand that nothing should be compromised in choosing the leader, with the attributes to disentangle the country from the present quagmire.
“Therefore, we think that every Nigerian, from every part of the country, should be given the opportunity to choose the best candidate, through a credible primary election; as a way of institutionalising a merit-based leadership recruitment process, for the country.”
