2019: We Have To Allow The North To Get The Ticket In PDP - Fayose

Ekiti state governor, Ayodele Fayose, has opined that the next presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party should be from the Northern part of the country. 

Fayose made the disclosure when the former minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Senator Bala Mohammed, paid him a visit in Ado Ekiti on Sunday to inform the governor of his interest in the PDP chairmanship position.

Fayose also said the South-West and the South-South regions had had their turns and should support the North to have a go at the ticket for the 2019 presidential election.

He however canvassed for the South-West to produce the next national chairman of the PDP and urged contenders from the north and other zones to focus on other positions.

He said: “I believe it is the turn of the South-West to have the national chairman. We have to allow the north in the party to begin to search for a credible presidential candidate for the party.” 

Speaking further, Fayose said that the time is not yet right for the PDP to elect a substantive national chairman, adding that the present care-taker chairman of the party, Uche Secondus, should be allowed to pilot the affairs of the party for the next five months in order to enable him conclude the on-going restructuring and re-organisation of the party.

“Besides, we need somebody who could take his time and use this interregnum and put the party into proper position. We do not need somebody who is trying to just finish the tenure of a former leader. The time we are now is quite a challenging one. It is not a time for someone to say he wants to just complete tenure. We should allow the caretaker committee to take over and put proper election in place for new executives of the party.

“You would recall that I told Alhaji Adamu Mu’azu to go. He’s gone now. This time we must entrust the party into the hands of credible people who would not use it to redeem their name or for personal gains. So, to me, there isn’t much that a substantive chairman can do in just five months now,” he added.

Meanwhile, Emma Agu, the publisher of Zest Traveller Magazine has said thatMohammed fits into the leadership profile that can set the PDP on the right track considering his years as a top civil servant and politician with bankable political capital.