Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has urged the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) not to zone its 2023 presidential ticket, but rather throw it open.

The 2019 presidential candidate of the PDP said he would like to see a sizable number of youths and women in the new National Working Committee (NWC) the party braces to produce.

There have been calls by some of the party leaders that the 2023 presidential ticket be zoned to the South.

Speaking at the 94th National Executive Committee (NEC) of the main opposition party in Abuja on Thursday, Atiku said the zoning of the 2023 presidential ticket has never been the cause of the country’s problem nor will it be the solution.

“The PDP has the right to determine its rules on how its party should be governed. The people of Nigeria also have the right to determine who governs them.

“Where the president comes from has never been the problem of Nigeria neither will it be the solution. There is no such thing as the president from Southern Nigeria or president from Northern Nigeria. There is only one president from Nigeria, by Nigeria and for Nigeria,” he said.

On the already zoned chairmanship seat as well as other national officers’ seats, Atiku told the NEC members in attendance that, “the decision of the NEC today will either see the PDP into the Villa in 2023 or not”.

“In 2003, all the PDP governors met at the Villa. (Ahmed) Makarfi was there, and said they were not going to support President Obasanjo, that I should run. I now referred them to the resolution of the NEC that said power should remain in the South-West for eight years, then I turned it down and we moved on,” he said.

In his opening remarks, the PDP’s acting national chairman, Yemi Akinwonmi, urged all members to embrace whatever comes from the meeting for the party’s ultimate goal of reclaiming power from the APC.