If a southerner eventually emerges as the president of the federal republic of Nigeria at the 2023 Presidential election, thursday on the 7th of October can be said to be a day where southern presidency is born. Two events occurred concurrently on that day that shift the direction of the region, where the emergence of Presidential candidates of the two major political party of PDP and APC will likely come from.
On the day, at the PDP national executives council meeting held at Abuja, and the party excos decided to zone the party national chairman to the Northern region. The region comprises of three geopolitical zones of northeast, northwest and North Central. The decision of theirs singlehandedly open the door to the emergence of candidate of southern extraction to be the flag bearer of the party in coming 2023 elections.
Meanwhile, on the same day at 10 degrees events centre in Lagos, group of people loyal to APC national leader, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu formed a coalition called South West Agenda (SWAGA) to push for the mandate of south west candidate of All Progressive Congress in the 2023 Presidential election. Their decision even went further than broad southern candidature, they limit it to south west alone. According to insiders privy to the permutations, it is said that it can only be Tinubu or whoever he(Tinubu) endorses from the south-west.
While PDP will likely favour south- south or south-east for the post, it is unlikely that PDP can zone the presidency to south-west bearing no game changer from those involved, since a day in politics is very long enough to change any existing permutations.
As a vivid observer of the political game in Nigeria, it can not be wrong to infer that both political parties have decided to zone their presidency to the south, thereby pitching the three regions in the south against one another.
Let the game begin.
