THE Imo State Governor, Hope Uzodinma, on Tuesday said the choice of who emerged presidential candidate in 2023 would be based on political party and not by tribe.

Uzodinma said this in an interview with State House correspondents after a meeting he had with the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

His position is coming at a time there is a raging debate between those arguing that the South, especially the South-East, should produce the next President and those who hold the belief that Buhari’s successor can emerge from any zone.

The governor said, “You know that the position is not vacant now; there is a sitting President and we are practising partisan democracy and not tribal democracy.

“So, the emergence of presidential candidate will come on party by party basis, not tribe by tribe basis.

“But if there are other internal factors that will form part of the considerations for parties taking decision, of course, that will be entirely the job of the leadership of those political parties and I think that is the right thing to do.”

The governor said he sought Buhari’s intervention on the problem of erosion ravaging his state, which he described as alarming.

Uzodinma said he had no personal grudges against a former governor of the state, Rochas Okorocha, but that the senator should also realise that another person is in charge of the state now.