2023: “Only a Northerner can win Presidency for PDP” – Dokpesi

Business mogul and former national chair­manship aspirant of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Raymond Dokpesi,
on Thurs­day said there is no way his Party can win the 2023 presidential election if it presents a candidate from the southern part of the country as its flagbearer.

Speaking in Abuja on the contro­versy over the zoning of the presi­dential ticket between the northern and southern part of the country, Dokpesi said the PDP must get its act right if it is serious about wresting power from the ruling All Progres­sives Congress, (APC), in 2023.

He said PDP members who are canvassing the zoning of the ticket to the South are only doing so because they want to copy the APC whose mem­bers are rooting for a zoning of the ticket to the South after the completion of President Muhammadu Buhari’s ten­ure in 2023.

Dokpesi said the Northern­ers have not had a fair share of the presidency since the return of democratic governance of the country in 1999.

He said, “We are all Nige­rians and there is no need for us to keep deceiving ourselves at this point in time. At the age of 70 and with my experience in or­ganising campaigns in this country, I can tell you that unless there is a candidate from the North, in my own considered opinion, the PDP will not stand a chance of winning the election.

Speaking on the clam­our for Igbo presidency, Dok­pesi said while he believes that it is fair that the South- East should produce the presi­dent as it is the only Southern zone not to have done so since 1999, the South-East cannot win if it gets the presidential ticket at this time.

Also speaking on the leadership crisis rocking the PDP, Dokpesi said the governors and elders of the party deserve commenda­tion for the courageous and just manner in which the matter was handled.

“We must unite and make sure that the neces­sary changes that are re­quired are achieved”, he said.