Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu says the 2023 presidential race in the ruling All Progressives Party (APC) should be exclusive of southerners notwithstanding the entry of some northern aspirants.
Sanwo-Olu said this while addressing journalists after he submitted the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship expression of interest and nomination forms to seek a second term.
Political observers believe that by zoning its national chairmanship position to the north, a slot Abdullahi Adamu from north-central is enjoying, APC has conceded the presidency to the south.
But aspirants from the north, including Ahmad Lawan, president of the Senate; Yahaya Bello, governor of Kogi State; Mohammed Abubakar-Badaru, governor of Jigawa State and Ahmad Sani-Yarima have obtained the N100 million APC nomination forms to contest for the presidential ticket.
However, Sanwo-Olu said though there are aspirations everywhere and so many qualified people, but for equity and fairness, “I think it is morally fair that it goes to the south.”
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“We believe that our positions from those meetings are still very valid and everybody must consider them. We hope that in future engagement all the aspirations we have in our region will come to pass.”
On his second term ambition, the Lagos State governor said: “We are appreciative of these three years but they have given us the confidence for us to seek a second term.
“We have done almost three years in the office and it’s been three years of monumental changes that we have in the state and by the way, we still have another year to complete that first four years tenure.
“Our confidence is premised on the fact that we have received tremendous support from the citizens of Lagos and we have put in place a robust economic agenda that has propelled all of the various interventions we have in Lagos.”
Meanwhile, Mohammed Malagi, chairman of Blueprint Newspapers Limited and gubernatorial aspirant of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in Niger State said he would hit the ground running if given the party’s ticket and elected at the general election.
