Salihu Tanko Yakasai, a former Special Adviser on Media to the Governor of Kano State, Abdullahi Ganduje, has disclosed that the 2023 All Progressives Congress, APC, Presidential Candidate will come from the South-West region, and not the South-East region,
Yakasai said that the Ebonyi State Governor, Dave Umahi, would be disappointed if his reason for decamping from the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, to the APC, in November 2020, was for the ruling party to zone the 2023 Presidential ticket to the South-East.
According to him, the potential Presidential Candidate of the APC is in the South-West and not in the South-East, a zone he claimed does not have the political number and Candidate with national appeal and weight to pull votes across the country in the forthcoming 2023 general elections.
Yakasai stated this as a Guest on ARISE Television’s ‘The Morning Show’, on Saturday.
He listed the APC Chieftains who have the ability to win the next Presidential election, as the APC National Leader, Bola Tinubu, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, as well as Ekiti State Governor, Kayode Fayemi.
His words: “Umahi should tell us if APC has promised him and other Governors from his region, if they are going to give power to them in 2023.
“If his reason for decamping is that PDP is not going to give power to the South-East, then has there been any assurance by the APC that they are going to give power to a Candidate from the South-East?
“That is a question that should be put to him (Umahi), because as far as I am concerned, I have not seen any indicator that APC is going to field any Candidate from the South-East, to be frank, and candid.
“I do not have one preferred Candidate from the South-West, but there are some people that have the potential. There is a difference between indicating interest, and then the ability to win the general election. You have to have someone that is a bridge-builder, you have to have someone that across the region can galvanise support, can galvanise votes, and who is being seen as a nationalist, all these are indicators of who can win an election in 2023.
“There are a number of them. We have Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu; we have the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo; and to some extent, Governor of Ekiti, that is being put out there as a potential Candidate. All these people are potential Candidates that the party can go for; anyone of them.
“In the APC, power should rotate to the South, and even in the South, I am of the opinion that the Candidate of the APC should come from the South-West in particular, and I have my reason for saying that.
“The reason is simply because I know, being a part of APC family, I know what the South-West contributed to the victory of the APC in the 2015 general elections. Even in the formation of the party, they contributed immensely to the formation of the party, as well as the success of the party in the general elections.
“And as such, even if you look at the major contenders in the APC, they are majorly from the South-West region of the country. I see no reason why the rest of the party should not put its weight behind a Candidate of their choice for the general elections.
“As far as I am concerned, there has been no major shift towards the APC retaining power in the North, apart from one Governor that had indicated interest and backroom gossips, but majorly there had not been any indication in the APC that power is going to be retained in the North.
“That is why I faulted the Southern Governors Forum by going public twice; they should have reached out to their political parties to have some bargain and diplomacy, to ensure that the Candidate emerges from the South.
“You cannot have APC being in power for eight years with a Northern President, and then another (Northerner) comes into power and continues. This is injustice.”