 It's still plus politics. Now the People's Democratic Party PDP has thrown open its ticket for the 2023 presidential elections, rising from its 96th National Executive Committee meeting in Abuja. The party said after a very extensive deliberation, the committee aligned with the recommendation of the National Zoning Committee that the presidential elections should now be left open. Now the Neck also added that the party should also work towards a consensus candidate. Now earlier, the committee led by the Benedict State Governor Samuel Orton had recommended that they recommended that zoning, even though in the constitution of the party, be jettisoned for the 2023 general elections. What's running us to discuss this is Ken Robinson, he is the National Publicity Secretary of PANDEF and will also be joined by a political analyst, Dickon Bassie. Thank you very much gentlemen for joining us. Thank you for this opportunity, good evening to you Mary Ann and you and good evening Nigeria. All right, I'll start with you Mr. Robinson because PANDEF has released a statement on as a result of the PDP's position on zoning. I know that before now you and I have had a conversation as to what PANDEF, the Madele Belt Forum and other groups have made about the issue of zoning, not just for the PDP but all political parties. I remember the last one was about the fact that these groups were not going to support any political party that was not picking a candidate from the south. But here we are, the PDP is saying come one, come all. What is the position of PANDEF on this particular matter now that the dais cast? It's quite unfortunate and as we contained in the statement issued by PANDEF and we are speaking the same in PANDEF with say the half family federal group, the Madele Belt leaders and of course organizing the group. We recall that earlier we had issued the statement after the open committee submitted this report. We issued a strong statement. Leaders of this region issued a strong statement including PDP. We issued a strong statement condemning the recommendations of the open committee and it was understood from the information that the NEC was going to have completely adopted that recommendation because most back there have been fillers and of course we call that Governor of Bashe State, Governor of Bala Mohamed had also recommended something similar earlier in 2001. So it is unfortunate and it's a shame that a party that deals on the principles of equity fairness and justice and rules constitution clearly commits itself to the policy of rotation and zoning in the pursuance of Mr. Robinson are you still there? Mr. Robinson? Yes I'm with you. Okay we lost you for a second. All right let me let me look at what the party chairman had said a few a few weeks ago. He talked about the fact that the People's Democratic Party would maintain each zoning policy. He said and I quote the PDP has a history of rotating our offices anybody who doesn't get it this time should wait after the tenure of whoever will be the next president. But of course everything has turned and taken a U-turn this is like I said in the opening the Governor of Venice State Governor Autumn was the first to recommend apparently the jessisoning of you know zoning in the PDP. What do you think the chances are why do you think the PDP has decided to take this route? Being that again may at some point the the former senate president Pocola Saraki had suggested that the PDP might have to go with a consensus candidate. But if the South is as strong as it should be within the People's Democratic Party and the ticket is being thrown open shouldn't the South be pushing or pulling its weight to make sure that somebody from their camp you know wields that flag at the end of the day other than just saying that you know if you don't support us then we don't support you. Mary, Nigeria is a great country with a lot of great men and women. No individual should take the country since Nigeria is for granted. What the PDP is doing is the leadership of Professor Aiu from inception till today a script was handed over to them and they're playing out that script. It is clear who the target is. Who gave the script and I mean I'd like to know who you think gave the script that you think they're playing. I have just told you what the Bola Mohammed Committee did in 2021 and as far back as December 2021 we have very strong information that this was the direction they were going to go and we know the person's involved. And so we have issued a strong statement saying that with this decision that the PDP has done, Jefferson zoning in favor of whatever they call it merit or whatever and we have said that there is no place, there is no section in Nigeria that is in want of male or character and integrity that are capable to become president of Nigeria. So the PDP has to clear as simply dog is unbrewed and it's innovations that the PDP needs someone from the north. Another presidential candidate to win an election is Faleshios because the PDP has won an election with Shiboli Shiboli Shiboli Battinger and Dr. Gullock in village Jordan. These men are from southern Nigeria and they won against Nortonans in various elections in 1999, 2003 and 2011. So the contemplation that it is only a left-back candidate that can give the PDP victory is displaced and it's just a hallucination. And we are saying that the PDP is as dog is unbrewed and we will mobilize our people with our interest groups across Nigeria, patriotic Nigerians and we're meaning Nigerians and we are expecting that the all progressive Congress will take advantage of this in discussion by the PDP to fill the candidates of southern extraction and sustain their legacy as it were or demonstrate to Nigeria that they are truly patriotic nationalistic party that is committed to the unity, peace and progress of Nigeria. Okay, let me go to you, Dikin Bashiakone, what's your position on the route that the PDP has decided to take on the presidential ticket, throwing it open for all who are interested? Well, thank you very much for me to welcome development. The more urgent thing this season in the next election is to afford Nigerians the opportunity of having a new party in government. That is a more urgent need because presently we are in that street as a nation, as a people, the economies, I mean you can't lay your hand on anything that is functioning or that is working under the present administration. So for me and what's the best strategy that the PDP has found best? We're going to bounce back to power. It's a welcome idea, I welcome it in its entirety. I want the ticket thrown open but let the strongest man, let the best man set it. That best man I'm sure will really want you with the best capacity. Now, but when we talk about best man or may the best man win within political parties, you and I understand that it's not just about what he has upstairs or his blueprint, it goes beyond that, it goes as far as financial might and how he's able to convince the delegates. So we may end up, we may end up, could we end up with someone who's not necessarily what we want in Nigeria today. Mr. Konk, can you hear me? I think we have some connection issues. Okay, I'm going to ask the question again. You talked about the best man winning and I'm saying when we're talking about inter-party politics and whatever route it might go, whether it's direct or indirect primaries and if it's a delegate issue, it comes down to who wills the more financial power and who's able to get more delegates. But then does that boil down to the best man? And when we're talking about the best, we're saying someone who can really stare the ship of this country in the right direction. So really, should we be doing that? Yes, it should show up the best man whether direct or indirect. I believe that the delegates are Nigerians. What I feel is what they feel. What you feel is also what they feel as far as the situation in this country is concerned. So I believe strongly that the delegates of the PDP, they will be out to pick the man that will be able to give us a new country, so to speak. Well, within 100 days, we should see a trajectory of victory for the people, of success. We should be able to have success theories within 100 days of the next man that will sit on that position of the president. So let's not look at the process or the processes that we'll meet. But the processes do matter. Don't the processes matter because we see it happen and it's not just in the PDP. It's the Nigerian way of politicking. The deepest pockets and the man who's able to get more delegates might end up being the flag bearer. But does that boil down to him being capable of doing the job? That's my question. I'm asking it again. The processes are important. They matter so much. But my conviction is that because we are in that state and we are all feeling this, the bad economy, the problem of insecurity, collapsed education system, dwindling value of the Naira, we are all in this put together as a people. Delegates are Nigerians. They are our brothers and our sisters. They will do their best to ensure that the person who is best prepared, the best of the season actually gets a ticket. I just want to take your mind back. I'm so sorry to speak over you. I will let you speak. But I want to take your minds back to 2015. I'm sorry, Mr Konin, can you hear me? I want to take your mind back to 2015. Nigerians were right exactly where we are today in dire straits. We wanted anybody else but the president that we had. And here we are in 2022. Same situation, maybe even worse. And we're also saying, oh, and you are actually saying we're in dire straits. So we need somebody to save us. So must we make the same mistakes? Because it's sounding like it, it's looking like it, it's barking like it, and I'm really wondering if we're about to make that same mistake, anybody else but who we have sitting in that position. Can you hear me? Oh, I think that we're having connection problems with you. I'm going to throw the same question back to Mr Robinson. Mr Robinson, can you hear me? Would you be able to attempt that question? Because I don't think we can hear Mr Konin. I won't try to attempt that question, because the issue for us in Pandev and the southern Nigeria is about not particularly who becomes the next president, the next presidential of southern Nigeria. Let us mistake the fact that the presidency of Nigeria is not the presidency of the party. And therefore, President Mohamed Buwari would have spent eight statutory years in office by 2023. So the next president of Nigeria should come from southern Nigeria. That's the point we're making. Regarding the comments that were made by Mr Konin concerning the best question as a new country, we cannot have a new country based on inconsistency and dishonesty. We cannot have a new country where people don't respect protocols and arrangements that have sustained the oneness of this country. Zoning and rotational offices is a panacea for crisis in Nigeria. It has brought about maintaining some level of sanity in our politics and thinking that it is only a particular person. Let us not deceive ourselves. What is going on in PTT is shameful and I hope that Nigerians will be firm and strong enough to stay low enough of this and decide for themselves who should be the next president of Nigeria. But Senator Ayu has said that anybody who doesn't get it this time, that he's all about fair play. He's all about fairness. I mean, if you think that the South should be the ones getting the ticket, then let all the Southness come and show if they're able to win the vote. And he's saying that if you don't get it this time, then you wait for another tenure where you'd be able to get it. That is interesting. We do respect to Mr. Partisherman. That's the man who has been in PTT and has enjoyed offices because of zoning. In fact, the office he occupies now is on the basis of zoning and it's surprising that he could make first statements. And we do respect to him. It's unacceptable. When we had 12 North Australians in 2018, did anybody tell anybody to wait until 2023? Nobody. People decided that he should go that way and all the Australians were from the North. And most of them are running now again. The presidency of Nigeria is not anybody's first right. It's nobody's destiny to occupy that office alone. We are 200 or something million Nigerians and about 50 million Nigerians are adults who are able to reside over Nigeria and direct their affairs of this country. So it's not anybody's best right and nobody should aggravate himself, the right to be president and continue to violate callously and carelessly violate rules and protocols that have been established in the interests of Nigeria. So we will continue to insist that the presidency of Nigeria must rotate to Southern Nigeria. And we are using this opportunity again, advise the APC to take advantage of this callous indiscretion by the PDP and demonstrate to Nigerians that it respects and it is committed to equity fairness and justice by ensuring that a Southern emerges as the participation candidate for the 2023 elections. I think the case that, and I'm not in any way speaking on behalf of the People's Democratic Party or Senator Aayu in the first instance, but he keeps making a case saying that all they're interested in right now is to save Nigeria, to take the country from the opposition. And he has added that the party will be at liberty to rotate the party ticket as it wishes after it returns to power. In other words, they will be honoring the zoning formula after 2023. Does that give you any form of? How can you save Nigeria on inconsistency? I ask again. How can you save Nigeria when you're trying to shift the goalposts in the middle of the game? That's what PDP is doing. There is a zoning arrangement. The presidency of Nigeria is the presidency of Nigeria, President Muammar, who comes from a certain part of the country. And if it's unthinkable that anyone will think that we will welcome another Nortonan for another eight years or four years or eight years or thereabouts in this country. In a diverse and complex country like Nigeria, we must say that it is the even sharing of power that drinks about cohesion and harmony and unity and progress. And when you begin to violate processes like that, what you're asking is that anybody can do whatever they like. And it's not good for Nigeria. I'll ask a quick question before I go back to Mr Basuakon. What should Nigerians be prioritizing? And Nigerians including you, Pandaf and every other forum that's out there in 2023? Is it zoning or is it a president that's capable to take us out of the doldrums? And I'm not in any way asking this question on behalf of the People's Democratic Party, but I'm asking you as a Nigerian, what should be our priority? Let me answer you by saying that the basis of crisis in any country, in any society and organization, is poor management of interest. What the PDP is doing is poor management of interest. And we cannot treat symptoms. The symptoms of the economy, of insecurity, panditry, those are symptoms. They are non-bolumen in certain parts of the country. Those are symptoms. What are they called? It's disaffection. It's delusion. It's lack of hope. For instance, there is nothing you can give to me to induce me to go and kill someone or to go and commit some sort of crime or kidnap or something like that. Because I have hope. I have believed in this country. I have believed in myself. I have believed that there is a future for me as a person, as a group of Israeli people. And so it's difficult to find me in some kind of situation. But we have people in this country who have lost hope, who have completely distracted, who feel eliminated, who don't think that there's anything for them in this country, who even don't think that they belong to this country because of the great incident. And that is what PDP is doing. We must learn to give a sense of belonging to every section and every sector of this country until we begin to treat the main issues and the fundamental issues to be continued to treat the symptoms. And we see these situations repeat itself. So it's the interest of Nigeria. It's the national interest of Nigeria. It's not a racial interest. It's not the interest of some reputious politicians or a certain group of people. It should be the interest of the generality of Nigeria as a country. And those interests include security, of course, includes the economy. But most importantly, the feeling that we are one people. The feeling of love, the feeling that I belong to this country and I want to contribute to the progress, the unity, the stability of this country. That is what is lacking. And what the PDP is doing now is aggravating that sense of exclusion that some persons have over the years perceived that that is what is happening in Nigeria. Some people believe that this country is their country. It's what they like that will happen. And what other persons feel does not matter. And that arrogant must stop for us to have a country that belongs to us. Well, I want to say thank you to you. Mr. Ken Robinson is of Pandef and Dickin Bastia Cohn is a political analyst. Unfortunately, we lost that connection with him. But thank you, Mr. Robinson, for being part of this conversation. Thank you so much, as always, for this opportunity. All right. And I appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you all for staying with us. And that's all for tonight. I'm Mary Anna Cohn plus Politics Returns tomorrow as we wrap up on the week. We'll still be talking for development. Have a good night.