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From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
National Chairman of the Labour Party (LP), Senator Nenadi Usman, has ruled out the possibility of the party fielding a presidential candidate of northern extraction in next year’s general elections.
She dropped the hint while speaking to newsmen after the meeting between the leadership of political parties and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Abuja on Tuesday.
The former finance minister explained that the party has already zoned the presidential ticket to the South, noting that the party will leave its door wide open to any southerner interested in contesting the position.
On the possible return of its 2023 presidential candidate, Peter Obi, and Senator Ireti Kingibe, she said she does not think they want to return and that they have not told anyone they wanted to return, stating further that we should not be dissipating energy on a non-existent situation.
The Senator who represented Kaduna South, while responding to plans of the party fielding a presidential candidate, said: “It all depends on whoever wants to use the LP.”
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“We cannot go out there to beg people, ‘please come and use the LP to contest elections.’ It’s never done. It’s left for future aspirants who want to use the LP to come. But we have one certain decision that we have taken. That is to say that we will certainly not field any aspirant from northern Nigeria.
“We have zoned the position to southern Nigeria. So, if any northerner comes now to want to contest elections, we certainly will not accept that. But as for who, I can’t tell you now because then it won’t be democratic anymore.
“We are supposed to have and practice internal democracy. So, in view of the internal democracy we intend to practice and keep to, we will not be able to tell. When the aspirants come, whoever, if the people like them and vote for them during the primaries, then whoever it is that wins the primaries, then we put them in the position.”
Nenadi also disclosed the next line of action over the party’s office that was torched recently, saying: “We wrote a petition to the Nigerian police and I’m very, very sure they are going to make sure that they bring to book all those who had a hand in what happened.”
On her readiness for the party’s congress, she said: “We are very prepared but I am sure you know that lately the surge of people wanting to join the LP are actually on the increase. And if we go ahead to stick to that date, to my mind, we are going to disenfranchise quite a number of people. “I think I may not be able to tell you the exact date or if we are going to change it, but to me, we should tinker with that date, sit together as a group and come up with a new date.
“But, political parties are about human beings coming together. One person cannot take a decision and I cannot take that decision alone,” she said.
