How Northern Cabals Defeated Southern Govs on Zoning of PDP ticket in 2023
By Ogundele Olanrewaju
The 2023 presidential election has been generating a lot of controversies as the Northern and Southern politicians try to produce the next president of the country.
On the platform of the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party, the Northern and Southern politicians have been fighting for their regions to produce the presidential ticket of the party.
While the southern Governors want the presidential ticket of the party to be zoned to their region for them to be able to produce the party’s flagbearer, the northern politicians want the ticket to be thrown open.
The southern Governors had earlier succeeded in influencing the zoning of the position of PDP’s National Chairman to the North to allow the presidential ticket to be zoned to the South.
However, the decision of the party’s National Executive Committee (NEC) during the Thursday meeting showed that the northern cabals who had earlier rejected the zoning report of Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi-led committee may have succeeded.
According to a report by Daily Post, the PDP NEC agreed that the party’s presidential ticket should be thrown open for any aspirant to contest.
The NEC resolution is against the agitation of the southern Governors who want the presidential ticket to be zoned to the southern region after the position of the party’s National Chairman was zoned to the north.
With the resolution of the NEC on Thursday, northern cabals may have defeated the southern Governors because the northern politicians will now contest for the PDP presidential ticket.
However, there is one major strategy that helped the northern politicians to beat the southern Governors on the zoning of PDP presidential ticket.
Northern Cabals Were Able To Convince NEC To Adopt Governor Bala Mohammed-led Committee Recommendation
The northern political cabals were able to convince the PDP NEC to adopt the recommendation of Governor Bala Mohammed-led committee on the zoning of the party’s presidential ticket.
Recall that the committee headed by Governor Bala Mohammed of Bauchi State had recommended that the presidential ticket of PDP for the 2023 presidential election should be thrown open for every aspirant to contest.
A report by Vanguard showed that before the NEC meeting on Thursday, a group rooting for former Vice President Atiku Abubakar had disclosed that they were not bordered by Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi-led committee report on zoning.
The report explained that the group expressed confidence that the NEC will adopt Governor Bala Mohammed-led committee recommendation on the party’s presidential ticket which was adopted during the NEC meeting.
Influential northern politicians like the former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, Sokoto State Governor, Aminu Tambuwal, former Kano State Governor, Rabiu Kwankwaso, and few others have already been tipped to fly the flag of PDP in the 2023 presidential race.
There are strong indications that the Northern politicians may likely grab the PDP presidential ticket after the NEC throws it open.
The number of delegates from the 19 northern states during the presidential primaries is one of the things that may likely favor the northern politicians to grab the presidential ticket of PDP.
