Taoheed Adedoja kicks against zoning of national chairman

A Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) National chairmanship aspirant, Prof. Taoheed Adedoja, said if the position was zoned to a state, it would amount to indirect imposition of candidate.

Adedoja told newsmen on Saturday in Abuja that the position should be made competitive for all aspirants to test their popularity and acceptability by the people.

"If any leader in the South-West agreed to zone the chairmanship position to Oyo, my home state or Lagos, I will kick against it.

"The position of the national chairman is so sensitive and important for its occupant to be a product of any form of zoning.

"Such zoning will not afford the candidate the opportunity to actually interact with people from across the political formations of the party.

"The office should be made competitive to the extent that any interested aspirant should ‎go round the country and seek the support of the people," Adedoja said.

The aspirant said that anybody that must be elected to chair PDP must believe in the path of peace, equity, fairness and the rule of law.

"Such a person must also understand the diversity of the country," he added.

He added that he had spent 55 per cent of his life in the North, in spite of the fact that he was born in Oyo.

Adedoja said that he had the support of the PDP leaders and members in Oyo state to contest for the position, adding that he had also visited many PDP former national officers, including some of them who had left the party.

He, however, said that his recent visit to former President Olusegun Obasanjo had nothing to do with his ambition of becoming PDP chairman.

He said that Obasanjo was an elder statesman who Nigerians should tap from his wealth of experience ``even when he is no longer in active politics’’.