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The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has zoned the position of National Chairman to the North.
The chairman of the party’s zoning committee and governor of Enugu State, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, disclosed this on Thursday while speaking to newsmen in Abuja.
Ugwuanyi said National Working Committee (NWC) positions currently being held would be swapped between the North and South.
He said the mandate of his committee did not include zoning of the office of President and Vice President.
Similarly, governors elected on the PDP platform have voted for the zoning of the party’s chairmanship position to the North.
At the meeting of the PDP governors held on Wednesday night at Akwa Ibom governor’s lodge in Abuja, they voted 9-3 in favour of the North, TheCable reports.
Three Northern governors — Bala Mohammed (Bauchi); Adamu Fintiri (Adamawa) and Darius Ishaku (Taraba) — voted for the chairmanship to be zoned to the South.
Mohammed has announced his intention to run for president in 2023.
Only one Northern government, Samuel Ortom (Benue), voted for the chairmanship to be in the North.
Sokoto State Governor and Chairman, PDP Governors Forum, Aminu Tambuwal, did not vote as he presided over the meeting.
He too is believed to be eyeing the presidential ticket, having run unsuccessfully in the party’s primary in 2019.
The PDP governors who voted in favour of Northern chairmanship are Seyi Makinde (Oyo); Godwin Obaseki (Edo); Nyesom Wike (Rivers); Udom Emmanuel (Akwa Ibom); Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi (Enugu); Okezie Ikpeazu (Abia); Ifeanyi Okowa (Delta), and Douye Diri (Bayelsa).
The meeting resolved to pass the resolution of the governors to the zoning committee of the national convention, scheduled to take place on October 30 and 31, in Abuja.
If a Northerner is voted chairman, the PDP may likely pick its presidential candidate from the South, although changes can still be made to reflect the North/South balance in the event that other compromises are reached.
Recall that Southern governors had recently demanded that the next president should come from the South, but their Northern counterparts have insisted that voters should be allowed to decide.