Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose, has canvassed for the zoning of the National Chairman of Peoples Democratic Party to the South-West.
The governor said it was the turn of the region to produce the chairman since presidency will return to the North in the next general elections.
He spoke when an Ex-minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Bala Mohammed, paid him a visit on Sunday night to consult him on his ambition to become the National Chairman.
Mohammed, who was in Ekiti in company with Ambassador Liya Damagon and a former Special Adviser on Political Matters to Ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, Ahmed Gulak, met with Fayose behind closed-doors in Ado Ekiti.
When asked if he was in Ekiti over his ambition to contest for the seat, Mohammed said it was no longer news that he was contesting for the post.
Fayose, who later spoke with journalists declared that the time was not right for the party to have a substantive chairman and that the present care-taker Chairman, Mr. Uche Secondus, should take charge for the next five months to conclude the on-going reorganisation in the party.
Faose said, “I think the party needs the caretaker committee now rather than a substantive chairman.
“What I also wish to say again is that for me, it is the turn of the Souh-West to be the national chairman of the party.
“The South-west and the South-South have had their turns and of course the next presidential candidate of the party would be from the north. So I believe it is the turn of the South-West to have the National Chairman. We have to allow the north in the party to begin to search for a credible presidential candidate for the party,” he said.
Fayose stressed the need for repositioning of the party.
“Secondly, we need somebody who could take his time and use this interregnum and put the party into proper position. We do not need somebody who is trying to just finish the tenure of a former leader.
“The time we are now is quite a challenging time and it is not a time for someone to say he wants to just complete a tenure. We should allow the caretaker committee to take over and put proper elections in place for new executives of the party.
“You would recall that I told Muazu he has to go and he’s gone now. This time we must entrust the party into the hands of credible people who would not use it to redeem their name or for personal gains. So, to me, there isn’t much that a substantive chairman can do in just five months now,” Fayose said.
