President Muhammadu Buhari has urged politicians seeking to be president in 2023 to join the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
President Buhari stated this in an exclusive interview with ARISE TV on Thursday.
When asked about his succession plan, he said:
The succession plan depends on the party. We are going to leave it for the party. The party will sit and make decision by the constituency they want and so on. So, those who want to be president should better join APC.
Buhari also noted that APC would decide which region the presidency would be zoned to in 2023, adding that the APC caretaker committee would submit a report to him by the end of June.
According to the President, the report would show when the APC would organise its convention.
Meanwhile, the recent defection of Governor David Umahi of Ebonyi State from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC) has raised fresh concerns over who succeeds Buhari in 2023 and indeed the zoning of presidential power in Nigeria.
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Giving reasons for his defection, Umahi claimed that the PDP was not planning to pick its 2023 presidential candidate from the Southeast, which has yet to produce a president since democracy was restored in the country in 1999.
The governor, who described the party’s action as insensitive and insincere, argued that for the sake of justice, equity and fairness, the region should be allowed to take a shot at the presidency since, according to him, other regions have done so.
Umahi, who is the Chairman of the South East Governors Forum, denied harbouring plan to be a beneficiary of his agitation, but claimed that he was prepared to be the “sacrificial lamb.”
He said:
It is absurd that since 1999 going to 2023, the Southeast will never be considered to run for presidency under the PDP. And this is my position and will continue to be my position. It had nothing to do with me or my ambition.
I want to clear the air that I never sought PDP presidential ticket and I will not. So whoever said that I moved to APC because they refused to zone the ticket to me is being very mischievous.
A host of Nigerian youths, in the meantime, have been calling for a presidential ticket for former Anambra State Governor, Peter Obi, and Oyo State Governor, Seyi Makinde.
According to them, both men have the capacity to rescue Nigeria from her present predicament and restore her lost glory.