The Sokoto State Governor, Aminu Tambuwal, on Tuesday in Abuja told the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) that the focus should be on winning the 2023 presidential election and not zoning.
He said the party would have the liberty to share power only after it had successfully won the 2023 elections at the centre and in the states.
Tambuwal said this when he met with former presiding officers of state Houses of Assembly and the House of Representatives in Abuja as part of wide consultation ahead of his official declaration to run for the office of President in 2023.
He made this claim after his Rivers State counterpart, Nyesom Wike, insisted that the opposition party should zone its presidential ticket to the South-South.
The 95th National Executive Council meeting, last Wednesday, constituted a 37-member committee to make recommendations for the zoning of various elective positions ahead of the general elections.
Given only two weeks for the assignment, the committee is expected to submit its report next Wednesday.
But speaking on Tuesday, Tambuwal said, “Now, this is for the PDP. In the South, as of today, the PDP is in eight government houses. The APC is also in eight government houses, leaving one, Anambra. In the North, the APC is in 14 government houses and the PDP is in five government houses. And they (the APC) have the President.
“I’m giving you this analysis so that together, as leaders of our party, we can work towards winning the election, not zoning, not winning tickets. Yes, we can share tickets and everybody can take his piece and go to his zone. But you must plan to win the election. That’s the reality of it. It’s not anybody’s making. I didn’t make myself come from Sokoto. No, it’s God.
“So, we must accept these realities as a party and work with these realities to win the election. After that, we can now say okay, let’s share power. Win the election first. Don’t win zoning! Win the election and then we’ll come and share power.”
The presidential hopeful noted that as the APC did in 2015, the PDP must seek viable candidates with which it could win elections and not narrow its chances through a zoning arrangement.
According to him, had the APC presented a candidate from the South in 2015, it would have lost the presidential election.
The Sokoto governor said, “The APC took their ticket to Katsina in 2015, where the last PDP President, Umaru Yar’Adua, who died in office in 2010, hailed from. Five years later, the APC, out of strategic thinking with Bola Tinubu and the rest of them, did this. I was part of it. We said we were looking for how to zone, but we must get power before we share it.
“I deliberately took the APC ticket to Katsina to give it to President Muhammadu Buhari. Yes, Atiku contested; Rabiu Musa contested and Sam Nda-Isaiah and Rochas Okorocha contested. But we knew where we were going, because we were determined to win.
“Let me tell you, had the APC given that ticket to someone from the South, in particular the 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 got seven million votes against Yar’Adua because they are from the same Katsina. For the PDP, I have a question. Are we looking at zoning or winning?”
