Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) leaders in the Southwest have insisted that power must shift to the southern part of the country in 2023.
At the end of an extended zonal caucus meeting in Ibadan, they said the PDP’s standard bearer therefore must come from the South.
A communiqué read by the party’s National Vice-Chairman, South-West, Olasoji Adagunodo, also the party also insisted on restructuring.
The communiqué reads,“We are in the election season already. The timetable is out and candidates for various positions will emerge within the next eight to nine weeks. And as the PDP South-West zone, what position are we presenting?
“We know that if the South-West and Yorubaland are not peaceful, things will not also be settled nationally. That is just the fact. We have also gone through the path that because of disunity, we were left out in the scheme of things.
“When the founding fathers of this party came together, they spoke about fairness, equity and justice, and they decided that the six major positions nationally must be shared among the six zones of Nigeria. That has always been the case until 2011. Because of the in-fighting and disunity, the South-West did not have a single position out of the six national positions.
“For the avoidance of doubt, I can list those six positions. In 2011, the President did not come from the South-West but from the South-South. The Vice-President did not come from the South-West, but the North-West.
“The Senate President came from the North-Central. The Speaker of the House of Representatives went to the North-West, while the Secretary to the Government of the Federation slot also went to the South-East. The chairman of the party went to the North-East.
“That was how we lost all completely and we don’t want to walk through that path again. It has happened to us before and we don’t want it to happen again.
“But the only way it won’t happen again is for us to unite and de-emphasize whatever issues we have with ourselves individually. We must come together to tell ourselves what we are going to demand nationally.”