Nigeria’s former Aviation Minister and a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Osita Chidoka has revealed that the main opposition party in the country is in a dilemma over the zoning of presidency to any region as the race to the 2023 general polls intensifies.
Speaking during an interview on Channels Television’s Politics Today which was monitored by Africa Today News, New York, Chidoka said he would personally want the PDP to field a southerner from the eastern part of the country as its candidate.
He however pointed out that his party is faced with two tough options – either to struggle to clinch power or embrace zoning to the detriment of winning the polls.
He said: ‘PDP is in a kind of dilemma. Do we struggle to win power first or continue our zoning as we have done or do we continue with the zoning even if that candidate may or may not win the election?
‘First of all, the Igbo people will have to bring out a candidate that can convince Nigerians because Nigerians are not a party to this internal party zoning structures.’
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In the event that both the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the PDP field a south-easterner as their respective candidates, Chidoka explained that Nigerians would be left with the choice of voting the best candidate that will deliver the dividends of democracy to them.
When asked if the PDP has lost hope of fielding an Igbo man for it to coast to victory, the former minister neither confirmed nor denied.
Rather, he said Nigerians have gotten to the stage whereby they will overlook their ethnic identities and consider the national interest first while voting for credible leaders at the polls.
Sometime last year, Africa Today News, New York reported that the 17 southern governors have demanded that the region produces the next President, however, their colleagues from the 19 northern states replied them swiftly warning that no region can threaten them over the zoning formula.
Although few northern governors have called on political parties to produce a southerner as President Muhammadu Buhari’s successor, Governor Bala Mohammed (Bauchi) also of the PDP has demanded that the opposition party field a northern candidate in 2023.
AFRICA TODAY NEWS, NEW YORK