Former governor of Kano State, Rabiu Kwankwaso, says the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) will lose the 2023 presidential election to the All Progressives Congress (APC) if it zones the party’s ticket to the south.
Kwankwaso who spoke during a Channels Television programme yesterday evening said it was imperative for the PDP to zone its 2023 presidential ticket to the northern part of Nigeria as victory in any election was based on strategy, and not sentiment.
Kwankwaso, who is being rumoured to be interested in running for president in 2023, said the insistence of the Southern politicians that the next president of the country should come from the region, rather than canvassing what was best for the country, was not in the best interest of the opposition party.
He added that the insistence of the south on producing the presidential candidate of PDP in 2023, was a way of arm twisting the North and “blackmailing them into relinquishing its right to contest the presidential position.”
According to him, “The PDP will make a big mistake if it zones its presidential ticket to any other region apart from the north.
“Many people are mixing what ordinarily shouldn’t come together at all.
“We have PDP, we have APC, we have APGA and we have many other parties today in this country.
“And the issue of where a party puts its presidency or vice presidency is a matter of strategy.
“If you look at it from 1999 to date, or even after 2023, we have 16 years for PDP, eight years for APC. Now, in the 16 years of PDP, we had a situation, where the presidency has been in the south for 14 years and only in the north for two years during the Umaru Musa Yar’Adua of blessed memory.
“Now, we see some people, maybe because they don’t understand politics or they want to be mischievous, they keep on mixing the two issues of two political parties. This PDP and APC are contestants in this game.
“The south is trying to blackmail and intimidate the North but it will be a political suicide if the ticket is zoned to the south. Politics is all about strategy and not sentiments,” he opined.
