Senator Chimaroke Nnamani has offered reasons why he decided to align with the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress for the 2023 elections, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, instead of his party’s flag bearer, Atiku Abubakar.
The former two-term Governor of Enugu State offered the reasons in a statement he issued on Sunday in Abuja.
The Senator said the PDP has breached its Constitution by subverting the principle of power rotation.
Nnamani said the PDP’s constitution prescribed that key political offices be rotated between the North and South to ensure equity, justice and fairness.
He said: “Conscious of the need to share and rotate key political offices among the diverse people of our country, the PDP constitution clearly stated that it shall adhere at all times to the policy of the rotation and zoning of the party and public elective offices in pursuance of the principle of equity , justice and fairness.
“Even when the PDP national Chairman Iyorchia Ayu made a firm commitment to step down should a Northerner emerge as presidential candidate for 2023 election, the leadership jettisoned the constitutional provision and turned the logic upside down.
“Recall that the PDP in 2019 allowed the North to contest the primaries for the presidency in Port Harcourt, Rivers in which Atiku Abubakar clinched the ticket and contested the election.
“It was expected that in 2023, the PDP in a corresponding manner allows the South to contest for the plum position, but the party in its decision opened the contest for both the Northern and Southern aspirants.
“In a twist of events and political maneuvering Atiku Abubakar got the ticket again.
“The outcome of the presidential primaries infuriated southern PDP faithful including the G.5 Governors who insist on respecting the North/South rotation principle.”
Nnamani said the action of the PDP amounted to injustice and lack of equity, adding that it was morally wrong to leave power in the North after President Muhammadu Buhari’s tenure in 2023.
The former governor of Enugu State said that Buhari in recognition of the North and South power rotation created a window for political balancing that enabled Tinubu to emerge as the APC presidential candidate.
“Having critically examined the situation, I found Bola Tinubu as the preferred candidate from the south to foot the bill in 2023,” he said.
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