One of the earliest candidates to show interest in the 2023 presidential race, Yahaya Bello, is on the verge of losing the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential ticket, Quest Times can report.

There have been widespread speculation and rumours in political circles and the social media space, that the Kogi Governor could run for President in the 2023 elections under the umbrella of the ruling APC.

As it turns out, however, Bello cannot run under APC should the party’s “unwritten” agreement stand, amid his 2023 presidential ambition.

Recall that the ruling APC had earlier zoned its party Chairmanship to the North ahead of the national convention slated for March 26, a decision that is not constitutionally backed but based on modalities to restructure the party ahead of the 2023 elections.

This was made public on Tuesday, February 22, shortly after President Muhammadu Buhari met with all the APC Governors to discuss modalities for its upcoming convention.

Speaking after the meeting, Governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-rufai, told journalists at the State House that; “We have agreed on a zoning formula for all the six geopolitical zones, and essentially, we swapped.

“Northern zones will take positions that Southern zones had in the last eight years and vice versa.”

Hence, if the APC plays the zoning card on March 26, as is widely expected, and concedes the chairmanship to the North Central, that could significantly complicate the presidential ambition of the most visible contender from the zone – Governor Yahaya Bello – even before he has formally and publicly declared his intention to run.

It would be interesting to see how he rallies after the party’s convention, especially if a candidate from his zone, the North Central, gets the party chair.

Based on antecedent, however, APC, in its nearly eight years of existence, has neither by itself nor the legacy parties that formed it, chosen both its chairman and presidential candidate from the same zone.

In the last 23 years, the only major party that has bucked the trend is the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) in 2003, when the party presented Odumegwu Ojukwu as its presidential candidate, even though Chekwas Okorie was Chairman. But that was understandable as APGA is a regional party.

The APC has in fact treated zoning with the same fetishism with which it has religion, insisting that its flag bearer and his deputy, for example, cannot be of the same faith.

Yet Bello insists that neither zoning nor faith is a mountain too high to climb. When the issue came up at a recent meeting, he said that whichever way the party sliced it, it would still fall to him, something which one of those present described as audacious, if not dangerous optimism–a view he disagreed with.

But as it stands, let’s wait and see if Yahaya Bello would be able to scale the hurdle should things go the other way around.

https://www.thequesttimes.com/why-yahaya-bello-may-lose-apc-presidential-ticket-amid-2023-elections/

We don't need to deceive ourselves... how could you think that yahayah bello will be apc presidential aspirant.... he is just trying to promote his popularity and making people to know him more.... He's a distraction.

How Yeye Bello is even considering contesting for the post of the president tells how low leadership in Nigeria has descended.

Like, how the heck!

And how anybody would take him serious is even a bigger disgrace to this nation.

You people above complaining...... Yahaya would do much better than what you have now. Can take it to the bank

Is he contesting in the first place? someone who is lobbying for VP

Yahya Bello became governor by merely participating in a gubernatorial primary election. I want to believe he will want to try his luck again hoping... he's going to take part in primary elections as long as he lives. I don't blame him.

lastcall:
You people above complaining...... Yahaya would do much better than what you have now. Can take it to the bank

What did he do in his state?