The 2023 presidential ticket of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) will be open to all party members, National Chairman Uche Secondus said on Saturday.
“Everyone who is qualified, young, old, governors and non-governors, is qualified and will have the opportunity to contest, and we have the space for everyone,” Secondus said in Bauchi.
His handling of the crisis in the party in the Southwest is not sitting well with governors elected on the platform of the party, its Board of Trustees (BoT) and some other prominent groups and individuals.
Secondus’ position appears to contradict the calculations in some quarters that the party would automatically zone the ticket to the South, as President Muhammadu Buhari would have completed two terms of eight years for the north.
Secondus, who said the PDP remained committed to zoning, said there would be no discrimination in picking the party’s presidential flag bearer in 2023.
He said: ”Zoning is entrenched in our constitution, and at the right time, you (reporters) will hear from us. However, the party is very democratic. There is no room for discrimination.”
Secondus was accompanied to Bauchi by Governor Aminu Waziri Taibuwal of Sokoto State, former Senate President David Mark, former governor of Gombe State, Hassan Ibrahim Dankwambo and the Deputy National Chairman of the party, North, Senator Nazif Sulieman Gamawa.
The PDP delegation paid a solidarity visit to Governor Mohammed Bala.
Asked about the recent defection of former House of Representatives Speaker Yakubu Dogara and his supporters from the PDP to the APC following a disagreement with Bala, Secondus said the political space was wide enough for everyone to move as he wishes.
“There is no rift. The political space is so wide in Nigeria, and anyone that is not comfortable will move, and we have seen such moves before. They will move and come back. That is the assurance I want to give to you,” he said.
