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Presidential Zoning: Let APC go for Osinbajo-Zulum ticket – Girei

Ahead of the 2023 presidential election, a chieftain of the All Progressive Congress (APC), Abubakar Girei, has said that the combination that will ensure victory for the ruling party is a Yemi Osinbajo-Babagana Zulum ticket.

Girei, an outspoken former senator representing Adamawa Central from 1999-2003, said if the APC will zone their presidential slot to the South, it would be proper to consider giving the ticket to the serving Vice President to consolidate on the successes of President Muhammadu Buhari and the Governor of Borno State as his running mate.

Speaking on Monday to select reporters in Kaduna on an array of national issues, the ex-senator called on the leadership of the APC to avoid a costly mistake in the choice of a presidential candidate and running mate.

He remarked that those calling for a power shift to the South-East are not wrong, but argued that it is morally right to give it to the South-West because of the support the zone gave to the President in the last election.

‘Somebody who by right and constitutionally too has right to fly the flag of the APC come 2023 is the Vice President of Nigeria, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, and he is from South-West. Who else is better than him?,’ Girei asked.

‘So, whoever comes out to be the flag bearer of APC from the South-West, I think he should naturally pick someone from North-East as his running mate. We have so many of them in the North-East but you will agree with me we have one governor that has now distinguished himself as the best governor in the country, that is Prof Babagana Zulum of Borno State, the best performing governor in the country today.

‘If somebody like Prof Osinbajo can pair up with Babagana Zulum, I have no doubt in my mind that we will win the election hands down.

‘But as I said, it is not yet time for that. Even the South-West we are talking about is not because they are the most deserving zone in this country. The most deserving as far as I am concerned is the North-East followed by the South-East.

‘The North-East has never produced the president of this country. So, ideally, they should be the one that we should be talking about their presidency, but because of this gentlemen’s agreement and understanding we said the South-West played a very prominent role in midwifing the APC and have given 100 per cent support to the emergence of President Muhammadu Buhari as President; therefore, morally, we are duty-bound to have someone from the South-West as the next president,’ he said.

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