Governor Aminu Waziri Tambuwal of Sokoto State has said the South may be unable to win the 2023 election for the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Speaking, on Tuesday, during a Consultative meeting with former principal officers of the National Assembly in Abuja, Tambuwal said, “you cannot zone what you don’t have”.
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He, therefore, advised the leadership of the PDP and other stakeholders to first win the election before zoning it.
The Governor also gave an analogy of recent elections to show why it might be difficult for the South to win the presidency for the PDP based on votes cast.
Tambuwal tasked the party to concentrate on how to win the election, than zoning of offices.
“For PDP, I have a question. Are we looking for zoning or winning? Now with due respect what I’m going to say, I do not mean any offence, see my leader Olisah Metuh I’m going to use your state as a reference point. And with due respect to the people of a plateau, I’ll use your state as another reference point.”
“We had an election in Anambra State. The governor of Anambra State won the election with 112,000 votes. The person next to him, the PDP candidate, secured about 53,000 votes. The third the APC candidate, had 24,000 votes. The fourth YYP candidate had about 20,000 votes. Put together in that state election, governorship, we had about 220,000 votes in between four political parties.
“Jos federal constituency in Plateau State where PDP won, the PDP candidate had about 40,000, PRP had 37,000 then APC 26,000. If you add this, it is close to a 100,000. Federal consittuency elections. So demography is an issue. That is why after the election, I appealled to PDP to look at these elections, and be stddying elections, and by elections, as we progress towards 2023.
“APC took their ticket to Katsina in 2015 where the last president of PDP, Yar’Adua, died in office in 2010. Five years later, APC out of strategic thinking with Bola Tinubu and the rest of them. I was part of it. We said we are looking for how to move, we must get power before we share it.
“I deliberately took APC ticket to Katsina to give President Muhammadu Buhari. Yes. Atiku contested, Rabiu Musa contested. And Sam Nda Isaiah and Rochas Okorocha, contested. But we knew where we’re going. Because we were determined to win. Let me tell you had, APC given that ticket to someone from the south, in particular South South, we couldn’t have won. Go and check the election results of 2007, Buhari had 11 million votes before in 2003. But in 2007, he 7 million votes against Yar’Adua becasue they are from the same Katsina.
“Now, this is for PDP. In the south, as of today, PDP is in eight government houses. APC is also in eight government houses, leaving one; Anambra. In the north., APC is in 14 government houses, PDP is in five government houses. And they have the President.
“So I’m giving you this analysis so that together, as leaders of our party, who are working towards winning election, not zoning, not winning tickets.
“Yes we can share ticket and everybody can take his piece and go to his zone. But you must plan to win election. That’s the reality of it. It’s not anybody’s making. I didn’t make myself to come from Sokoto, a Fulani man. No, it’s God. God could have decided for me to be born somewhere else not in Nigeria. So we must accept these realities as a party and work with these realities to win election.
“After when we come down and say okay, let’s share power. Win election first. Don’t win zoning o! Win the election and they we’ll come and share power. Because the President and the vice President cannot come from the same zone. They cannot even come from the same religion. Am I right? In fact, they can hardly be of the same faith. If you have president and vice president Muslim-Muslim dead on arrival.”
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