As I speak with you now, I don’t know anybody that has formally come to make a declaration or intention of being an aspirant.
The main opposition party, Peoples Democratic Party, has said no politician in the party from the South-East region has formally shown interest in running for the presidency in 2023.
According to the National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, who spoke to SaharaReporters on Wednesday, the PDP will monitor events in the political space before taking its decisions.
Ologbondiyan disclosed this while responding to the demand made by some South-East leaders on Tuesday that the presidential tickets of the PDP and the ruling All Progressives Congress in the 2023 election should be ceded to a politician of Igbo descent.
SaharaReporters had reported on Tuesday that Igbo leaders across political affiliations have asked that the two main political parties in the country give their presidential tickets for 2023 general elections to the South-East.
The demand was made in a communique signed by a former governor of Abia State, Senator Orji Uzor Kalu, and Senator Ike Ekweremadu, issued after the conclusion of a dual-party meeting of South-East leaders held on Tuesday at Camp Neya, Igbere, Abia State.
However, the PDP spokesman said, “As I speak with you now, I don’t know anybody that has formally come to make a declaration or intention of being an aspirant. With this, we cannot jump the gun. We will bide our time as a party and when the organs in the party have taken a decision on the direction to go, we can be speaking of aspirants then.”
He also affirmed that the decision would be taken by the structures in the party that would weigh options before an aspirant could emerge from the region.
“The constitution of the Peoples Democratic Party recognises rotation between the North and the South. In other words, zoning is entrenched in our party.
“PDP has various organs where decisions are made considering variables. They consider the variables of what is at stake. So, these various organs have not taken a decision yet. I can tell you that the party has not taken any decision.
“PDP does not work by conjectures or presumptions. We work as a party squarely with what is good for us. Like I said, our party has not reached any conclusion concerning 2023 yet.”
While responding to a question about the availability of a credible candidate that the main opposition party can present to challenge the ruling party in 2023, Ologbondiyan said, “Since I told you the party has not made a decision on zoning, I can’t be talking of the credibility of any politician.”