2023: Osinbajo, Bakare disagree on zoning of APC presidential ticket

Two All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential ticket aspirants, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo and Pastor Tunde Bakare Thursday disagreed on the zoning of the Presidency of the party. While Vice President Osinbajo was of the opinion that the ticket should be zoned to the South, since the incumbent President, a leader of the party, President Muhammadu Buhari is from the North, Bakare, however, said an aspirant from the South and one from the North are all Nigerians. The clergyman turned politician maintained that the concern should be good governance, with the determination to rebuild Nigeria.

The duo spoke after obtaining their nomination forms at the International Conference Centre (ICC), Abuja. The Chairman of the Osinbajo Campaign Organisation, Senator Kabiru Gaya, who obtained the forms on behalf of the Vice President, responding to a question on zoning said: “I have been in politics for many years and I understand at a certain level how politics should be played.

I believe it is a game of give and take. We have served for the president in this country for eight years under the leadership of President Muhammadu Buhari, so the presidency should go to the South and that is why we said the best person to handle this matter is somebody who has been in the system, if he’s sworn-in today at the Eagles square, by tomorrow morning he can pick up because he’s already in the system. I was a governor. I know what it takes when you are sworn-in.

It takes time for you to learn and move forward. But when you are in the system, you don’t have that problem, it’s going to improve because they have now drawn a plan in which you could have peace, stability and a better economy and he’s going to improve on that new plan we have to develop the economy better.”

Bakare, in his reaction on zoning, said: “God rules in the affairs of men, he gives it to whomever it wills. A southerner is a Nigerian and a Northerner is a Nigerian and we trust God that the best, the most competent and the fittest and those who would truly love our people, especially the poor would rise to fix our nation. Many people run in the race only one will take the crown, there is only one seat and whoever takes it most of us must rise and join the person to build. East, West, North, South, Nigeria is my home.” (New Telegraph)