Ex-Akwa Ibom deputy governor: Zoning can’t win presidency… PDP must field its best

Patrick Ekpotu, former deputy governor of Akwa Ibom state, says zoning alone cannot win the presidential election for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in 2023.

In a statement on Sunday, Ekpotu said zoning as a democratic arrangement may answer the questions of equity, justice and fairness but it is not enough to take power.

Over the past months, four presidential hopefuls — Bukola Saraki, former senate president; Bala Mohammed, Bauchi governor; Aminu Tambuwal, Sokoto governor; and Mohammed Hayatu-Deen, former managing director of the now-defunct FSB International Bank – held consultations across the country on consensus candidature.

Saraki and Mohammed were announced as “northern consensus candidates” following a report released by Ango Abdullahi, elder statesman, on Friday.

But Tambuwal rejected the outcome of the exercise. Also, Raymond Dokpesi, PDP chieftain, said Vice-President Atiku Abubakar was not part of the arrangement.

The former deputy governor said for the PDP to win, it has to put its “best foot forward in order to meet the overwhelming yearning of the people”.

“Zoning in itself, alone, can’t win an election. As a democratic arrangement, it may answer the questions of equity, justice, fairness, and prejudices occasioned by years of entrenched institutional bias along primordial lines, when justly exercised,” he said.

“But as it stands today, while zoning remains one of the most discussed topics in the nation’s political space, it is apparently not the silver bullet that the PDP would rely upon to bring down the behemoth, that is the ruling party, APC in the coming presidential election.

“At the risk of repetition, I say again that, to sweep APC away from power come 2023, the PDP must have to put its best foot forward in order to meet the overwhelming yearning of the people.

“It must focus on the bigger picture of regaining presidential power, by finding a way to concentrate its energy, resources and ingenuity in surmounting the hurdle of contesting power with an incumbent party, rather than sustaining the current disruptive, self-sabotaging zoning debate.”