As Nigerians eagerly await where the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, will zone its presidential ticket ahead of the 2023 general election, the Justice and Equity Group, JEG, has made case for the zoning of the ticket to the North in the interest of fairness and justice. The JEG, which is a group within the PDP, maintained that the presidency of the nation, under the administration of the party, had remained in the South for a total of 14 years, when former Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo and Dr Goodluck Jonathan were in saddle, while the North, under late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua only remained in power for two years.
The group said this in a statement signed by its chairman and former Deputy Majority Whip of the House of Representatives, Hon (Engr) Ahmed Muktar in Abuja. The JEG reasoned also that it will be in the party’s greater interest to abide by the earlier decision of its National Executive Committee, NEC, that threw open the presidential ticket of PDP to all zones. The Justice and Equity group argued, strongly, that the best candidate, who can win the presidential election for the PDP and “change the terrible mess which the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, has turned Nigeria into”, should be allowed to emerge from any zone in the country.
The group’s statement was in response to a recent press release by Prince Kassim Afegbua, an erstwhile Commissioner in Edo State and one of the former spokespersons of Atiku Abubakar presidential campaign during the 2019 presidential election. Afegbua, had in his press release, said among other things: “For me, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar should quit his quest for presidency and support a southern Nigerian candidate in the spirit of fairness, equity and justice as that will assuage the feelings of stakeholders from the Southern part of Nigeria”.
He added, “It will be against the run of play and natural justice for any aspirant of Northern extraction to show interest in the 2023 presidential election within the Peoples’ Democratic Party threshold. “Given PDP’s doctrine of political power balancing and fairness, it will be against its own unwritten rule to cede the ticket to any Northern aspirant, least of all Alhaji Atiku Abubakar”, Afegbua stated.
However, the Justice and Equity Group maintained, stoutly, that it is undemocratic to ask a qualified Nigerian not to contest for Presidency. According to the group’s statement, “We think that in the greater interest of the PDP, we should abide by the earlier PDP National Executive Committee decision that threw open the presidential ticket of PDP to all zones. “Let the best candidate that can win the election for the PDP and change the terrible mess APC has turned Nigeria into, to emerge”, it said.
