Former President Dr Goodluck Jonathan and other party members who may want to contest the 2023 presidential election under the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have a chance to emerge as its candidate when the National Working Committee (NWC) takes a decision on zoning.
PDP national chairman, Prince Uche Secondus, who made this declaration in Abuja on Thursday in a session with the media on the third anniversary of his leadership, however, noted that it was too early to dwell on the politics of 2023 as the nation is beset with many problems.
He maintained that the main opposition party is still waiting for the 2019 election post mortem being prepared by the Governor Bala Muhammed’s committee, set up to determine why the party lost the election.
He said: “On the issue of the former President, I stand by my report. The Bala Committee is still working, coming out with a report of why we lost and by the time they finish, we will take a decision and the decision will not be for the NWC only but the entirety of our party.
“And I believe that whoever that is interested in 2023 maybe including the former President, the thing is that the PDP is a party for all. Everybody will have that opportunity but in clear terms, we have not taken any decision to give anybody the ticket for now.
“You can’t be talking of ticket when the country is in a terribly bad shape and I think we should face that fact first and press, the people in government should do better, to secure us and better the economic agenda for the good of the people. We are not going to talk about who will or will not get the ticket now.”
He further explained: “I know you the media are interested in zoning, but our party has a clear method of doing things. After the general election, we set up a panel to study and appraise our performance and make necessary recommendations. The Governor of Bauchi state, H.E Alhaji Bala Mohammed is heading the committee and they are still working.