Governor Ayodele Fayose will on Thursday September 29 formally declare his intention to contest for the position of the President of Nigeria.
The Governor, through his Special Assistant on Public Communication and New Media, Lere Olayinka, sent a letter to the leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP stating that his ambition was in the overall interest of the party.
An excerpt from the letter reads thus:
“My dear leader, it is with deep sense of responsibility that I write to inform you of my intention to seek the ticket/mandate of our party to contest the 2019 presidential election, considering your support and commitment towards our great party, the Peoples Democratic Party, it becomes imperative to keep you informed and seek your support”.
“This ambition is however without prejudice to our party’s position, but in the overall interest of the party and our country”.
“I urge that all hands should be on deck to ensure victory in our quest to return to the Presidential Villa, Abuja in 2019”.
Mr Fayose noted that he had a penchant for taking over power, saying that he was going to unseat the current President.
“I’m going straight to that villa, I am the next President”
However, PDP reacted to Fayose’s plan to contest the election stating that he should not waste his resources.
The party emphasized that its candidate for the 2019 General Election will come from the North, noting that all its members were aware of the zoning formula adopted by the party on elective positions.
National Publicity Secretary of the party, Prince Dayo Adeyeye, confirmed that resolutions were reached at the Non-Elective Special Convention of the party, stating that the Presidential ticket goes to the North.
“The highest organ of the party, which is the National Convention, zoned the Presidential ticket of the PDP to the North and that has not changed”.
“The same National Convention zoned the position of the National Chairman to the South and the convention is yet to change any of these two”
He called on the Governor to respect decisions taken by the party on zoning, pointing out that those decisions are binding on all members of the party and nobody can alter them.
“The Governor is a member of the party and was at the convention where these decisions were taken”.
“As a leader of the party, one expected the Governor to respect the party and its decisions”.
“If someone in such an office is breaking the decisions of the party, what do you expect from the rank and file?”
By the zoning formula of the PDP, the North gets the Presidential ticket while the South East gets the Vice Presidential ticket. The South East, in addition will also get the position of the National Legal Adviser, National Treasurer and National Youth Leader.
The North aside getting the position of the Presidency will also get other positions like the Senate President, Deputy Speaker, Deputy National Chairman, party’s National Secretary, National Financial Secretary, National Publicity Secretary, National Auditor and National Women Leader.
The South-South is expected to get the positions of the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the National Chairman of the party while the position of the Deputy Senate President, Deputy National Secretary and National Organising Secretary will be zoned to the South West.
Zoning of political offices by a political party contravenes the provisions of Section 42 of the 1999 Constitution. If the law is applied unequally, then it discriminates against persons who are not from the favoured zone, which is contrary to Section 42 thus becomes unconstitutional.
It would be recalled that Governor Fayose had in August, in a South West Leadership and Stakeholders meeting of the PDP, declared his desire to contest the 2019 Presidential election, stating that he would officially declare his ambition October 1.
Earlier in May, Fayose ruled out the possibility of contesting the Senatorial seat in the 2019 General Elections, or any elective position again saying his main preoccupation after leaving office, was to agitate for a better treatment of the Nigerian populace, by the Federal and State Governments.
