Former National Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Gbenga Olawepo-Hashim, has faulted the party’s decision to zone its 2027 presidential ticket to the South, warning that the move could hand President Bola Tinubu an easy path to re-election.
Speaking on Arise Television’s The Morning Show on Thursday, Olawepo-Hashim argued that zoning remains one of Nigeria’s most divisive political practices, stressing that competence, not regional rotation, should determine who flies the PDP flag in 2027.
“Let’s deal with issues that will unite us, not the ones that will further divide us. We don’t need zoning to produce a competent president. A competent president can come from any section of the country,” he said.
The PDP chieftain recalled that former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s emergence in 1999 was not the product of zoning but the result of open competition at the party’s convention.
“At the national convention, if people think you’re competent enough, they will vote for you. President Olusegun Obasanjo did not emerge in 1999 because of any zoning. He contested fairly and won the ticket. It was only under President Goodluck Jonathan that the PDP decided to give him an exclusive ticket, and he lost the election,” Olawepo-Hashim explained.
He warned that excluding credible aspirants from other regions would only weaken the PDP’s chances against the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2027.
“The campaign for zoning the ticket to the South in PDP is a default campaign for President Tinubu’s re-election,” Olawepo-Hashim declared.
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