APC Considers Zoning Vice Presidency to S’East

As the All Progressives Congress (APC) continues to tinker with a strategy to gain nationwide acceptance and triumph over the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2015 general election, the party may have decided to zone the vice presidency to the South-east geopolitical zone, THISDAY has learnt. Sources within the APC leadership informed THISDAY that contrary to the widespread belief that it would zone the number two slot to the South-west, its target is the South-east, in order to break the stranglehold the PDP has in the region as well as the South-south zone. They said the South-east is critical to the party as it moves to gain nationwide spread and acceptability in the key geopolitical zones in the country. One party official explained that APC would rather zero in on the South-east for the vice presidency because it is confident that it already has the South-west and North-west, the zones that account for the largest number of registered voters, in the kitty. “Our strategy is to pair a northern Moslem candidate with a Christian running mate from the South-east, as this will enable us capture votes from the north, South-east and parts of the South-south, which also boasts Igbo- speaking indigenes. “By zoning the vice presidency to the south east, we would also be helping our brothers across the Niger (South- easterners) actualise their quest for the presidency, as the vice-president is just a heart beat away from the president. “Under the current zoning arrangement that the PDP is offering the South-east, people from the zone would have a slimmer chance of capturing the presidency in the foreseeable future. “But with the vice presidency in their grasp, their dream will be easier to attain,” the APC official explained. Other APC sources also confided in THISDAY that President Goodluck Jonathan and PDP might have got wind of the APC’s zoning formula and moved to scuttle it by putting pressure on the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) to disqualify a former Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, from contesting for APGA’s governorship ticket for the Anambra election. “Had Prof. Soludo secured the APGA ticket, contested the governorship election and won, it would have been difficult for the PDP to convince him to return to its fold, given the way it has treated him. “He would have been riped for the picking by APC and would have been a formidable combination with whomever he is paired with. “Soludo’s emergence posed a serious threat to PDP, as he is popular, cerebral and would have galvanised the South-east votes for APC. That is why he was blocked,” revealed one source.