2023: PDP’s focus is winning not zoning – Gov Wike

Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State has said the main agenda of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was not zoning but to strategize, campaign vigorously and win the 2023 general elections.

Wike, who is Chairman of the National Campaign Council of the PDP for the September 19 governorship election in Edo State, said on a Channels Television programme, Sunrise Daily on Tuesday that zoning is a luxury that only the party in power can afford.

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Uproar over zoning was ignited last week by President Muhammadu Buhari’s nephew, Mamman Daura, when he advocated that power rotation should be jettisoned in 2023.

Wike said, “As an opposition party, we will look at all variables; what will make us win the election first. That is what is important to us. The ruling party can say that (zoning) but for the opposition party, there are variables.

“So, many variables will come into play. So, it will be wrong for me as an opposition person to say this must be done now. No, I will not do that.”

But the PDP Deputy National Publicity Secretary, Diran Odeyemi, told Daily Trust recently that “The PDP is an organised party which appreciates zoning.”

“So, at the appropriate time, we shall come up with our zoning formula which will define where the national chairman will come from and where our presidential candidate will come from,” he added.