Former Deputy National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Olabode George, has pleaded with the party’s stakeholders in the Southeast region to concede the position of running mate to Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, the party’s standard-bearer, to Southwest.
George, who made the appeal yesterday in a phone discussion with The Guardian, said it was imperative of the Southeast zone to concede the running mate slot to Southwest now on the grounds that in the event that Atiku wins the presidential election next year and takes eight years in office, whenever the pendulum shifts back to the South “the presidential slot would automatically go to Southeast.
“But if the region decides to take the vice president slot now, it would be awkward for it to say after spending eight years as running mate that it would go ahead to produce a president.
“Such calculation will not work, because a region cannot produce the vice president and president for 16 years running.”
George therefore appealed to the stakeholders in the Southeast to consider the future and on the benefit of doubt that the party would trash the ruling All Progressives Congress in the next general election, Igbo people should allow the Yoruba produce Atiku’s running mate.
The former deputy national chairman said: “Putting into consideration the importance of numbers in the coming election and the need to defeat APC, Southwest stand a better advantage in terms of registered number of voters.
