Chief Raymond Dokpesi, business mogul and former national chairmanship aspirant of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), on Thursday said there is no way his party can win the 2023 presidential election if it presents a candidate from the Southern part of the country as its flagbearer.
Speaking exclusively with Daily Independent in Abuja on the controversy over the zoning of the presidential ticket between the Northern and Southern part of the country, Dokpesi said the PDP must get its act right if it is serious about wresting power from the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2023.
He said PDP members who are canvassing the zoning of the ticket to the South are only doing so because they want to copy the APC whose members are rooting for a zoning of the ticket to the South after the completion of President Muhammadu Buhari’s tenure in 2023.
Dokpesi said the Northerners have not had a fair share of the presidency since return of democratic governance of the country in 1999.
He said, “We are all Nigerians and there is no need for us to keep deceiving ourselves at this point in time. At the age of 70 and with my experience in organising campaigns in this country, I can tell you that unless there is a candidate from the North, in my own considered opinion, the PDP will not stand a chance of winning the election.
“On the ambition of those from the South who are today asking for the presidency to be zoned to the South, I can say that they are only echoing what prevails in the APC. In APC, President Muhammadu Buhari has done eight years, so it is imperative on APC to cede the presidency to the South.
“In the case of PDP, let us look at it honestly. Former President Olusegun Obasanjo from the South-West did eight years; Goodluck Jonathan from the South-South also did six years. That made a total of 14 years.
“On the other hand, Umaru Yar’Adua from the North did three years, so there is an imbalance of 11 years. If in 2019, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar had not been rigged out of that election, he would have come back in 2023 to say that he wants to do a second term. And would anybody have stood on his way? No!
[Daily Independent]
