South needs north to actualise Presidency, Diri declares

Bayelsa State Governor, Senator Douye Diri, has said no region can produce the president of the country without the support of other regions.

He specifically stated that the demand of the southern governors that the presidency is zoned to the South could not be achieved without the support of the North and vice versa.

Diri spoke, yesterday, when a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential aspirant and Governor of Bauchi State, Senator Bala Mohammed, visited him in Government House, Yenagoa.

The Bayelsa governor urged PDP members to collectively work for the success of the party in next year’s presidential election.

Diri noted that as an opposition party, what should be paramount was how to wrest power from the ruling party, which he said had lost grip of governance in all aspects.

While restating the call for the PDP to zone the presidency to the South, Diri stressed the need for political offices to be rotated among different parts of the country to ensure equity, fairness and justice as exemplified by the PDP in its last national convention.

The Bayelsa helmsman, however, noted that God remained the ultimate decision-maker on who becomes the PDP standard-bearer and that he would support whoever emerges as the party’s choice.

Speaking earlier, Mohammed advised other PDP aspirants to be humble in the quest to get support for their presidential ambition.

The Bauchi State governor, who described Bayelsa as his second home, noted that he was in the state to formally declare his intention to run for the presidency.

According to him, as a democrat and having benefited from people all over Nigeria, he is not sectional and would support whoever emerges as the party’s candidate for the 2023 presidential election.

He called on other aspirants to close ranks and work together for the PDP to take over power at the centre.