For the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to sack the All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2023, the party must open its presidential ticket to all, the party’s youth leader in Kaduna State, Aliyu Bello has said.
Reacting to the recommendation of the zoning committee of the party that the chairmanship position be zoned to North, Bello said if the presidential ticket is opened to all, it would address the problem of internal democracy that led to the defeat of the party in 2015.
Bello, who is the chairman of the forum of youth leaders in North West, said the failure of the APC government to fulfill its three main campaign promises; revival of economy, corruption war and tackle insecurity has brightened the chances of PDP to regain the presidency in 2023.
“We are pleading that the presidency should not be zoned to North or South, it should be opened to all parts of the country.”
“In this way, all aspirants from across the country will be able to compete. At the end, we will have the best to face the APC at the general elections,” he said in an interview in Kaduna.
Warning against what he tagged as ” skewed zoning”, he said mass defection looms if the party zoned out some aspirants from the presidential race.
“We have aspirants in both North and South who are capable to set the country aright. So, I will appeal to our BoT, NEC and other critical stakeholders to ensure that our ticket is open to all. Nigerians are eagerly waiting for us to field the best candidate to rescue them from the APC, ” Bello added.
He said the North being the votes bank of the PDP is badly affected by the misrule of the APC, saying Northerners will vote for the party if it fields someone that has capacity to address the insecurity challenges in the region.
