As the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) prepares for its November 15–16 convention in Ibadan, party chieftain Gbenga Olawepo-Hashim has firmly rejected calls to zone the presidency to the South, insisting that such a move is unconstitutional and discriminatory.
In an interview with ARISE NEWS on Thursday, Olawepo-Hashim explained that his opposition to zoning is not driven by personal ambition for the North Central region, but by respect for the Nigerian Constitution.
“My opposition to zoning the presidency is not on account of wanting it to come to the North Central. I’m doing so because it is against the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The Constitution does not permit any party to zone an elected political office, such as the President, on account of region. It’s discriminatory,” he said.
He added, “This has never been done by any political party in Nigeria’s history. People may have their sentiments, but they don’t come at the platform of the party, such as the National Executive Committee, to pronounce that they close the door to a certain region.”
He argued that no political party in Nigeria’s history has barred candidates from any region from contesting, recalling that even in 1999, when there was strong sentiment to compensate the South-West after the annulment of June 12, aspirants from other regions were not excluded.
He noted, “In 1999, after the June 12th annulment, there was an opinion that there was a need to accommodate the expectation of Southwesterners. And so there was an unwritten consensus that the President should come from Southwest. But nobody from any other zone was recruited from contesting. Dr. Alex Ekwueme contested from the Southeast. Alhaji Abubakar Rimi contested from the Northwest. The leaders, in a mature manner, spoke through their delegates.”
Olawepo-Hashim warned that enforcing zoning at the party level risks creating divisions across the country.
“The danger in this kind of thing is that you pitch one section of the country against another. Nigerians are not interested in where the President comes from. Nigerians want a competent President, a President that can fix the economy and national security—anywhere he comes from,” he said.
Citing the 2023 general elections, he pointed out that President Bola Tinubu secured the bulk of his votes from Northern Nigeria, despite hailing from the South.
He stated, “In the last election, the majority of votes that came for President Tinubu came from Northern Nigeria. He lost in the South, where he came from. He lost in Lagos. He struggled. That’s to tell you that the Nigerian electorate are really not interested in what some political elites are trying to force on the agenda.”
Melissa Enoch
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