Ahead of 2023 general election, MYKE UZENDU examines the intrigues pushing PDP zoning arrangements and the aspirants fighting for the ticket.
The leadership crises rocking the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has been linked to the scramble for the control of the soul of the party ahead 2023 general election.
The legal war has been linked to Rivers State governor, Nyesom Wike who is bent on removing the National Chairman of the party, Prince Uche Secondus, to pave way for his emergence at the party’s flagbearer or Vice Presidential candidate in 2023.
It was learnt that Wike’s chances of securing the party’s ticket was being frustrated by Secondus who is also working to clinch a second tenure.
The 2019 Elections Review Committee set up by he party to assess its performance in the last general electio, had urged the party’s leadership to allow all interested aspirants vie for the 2023 Presidency, irrespective of their geo-political zones.
Chairman of the committee and governor of Bauchi state, Senator Bala Mohammed, while presenting the report of the committee to the National Working Committee of the PDP anchored its position on the fact that across the land, Nigeria boasts of good hands capable of bailing the country “out of her current quagmire.”
Meanwhile in continuation of its reconciliation and fence mending strategy, the party after it NEC meeting last week mandated the NWC led by the party’s Acting Chairman, Elder Yemi Akinwonmi to come up with a template for the nomination of members into various committees like: Convention, Presidential Zoning, Chairmanship zoning et al.Speaking to newsmen after its 92nd National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting, Kola Ologbondiyan said,
“NEC has resolved that Abuja will be the venue of the PDP National Elective Convention slated for October 31, 2021.“NEC to meet on the 9″ of September to approve the various nominations into the respective national convention committees”.
Before the party lost the seat of power in 2015, Goodluck Jonathan, a southerner was the last president from the PDP and the Northern elements in PDP are strongly contending that the zoning should be in their favour. This is not withstanding the fact that the present occupant, President Muhammadu Buhari, a northerner is on his second lap of eight-year tenure.
By tradition of the party, the national chairman of the PDP and its presidential candidate should follow the North/South understanding of power equation. The implication is that if for instance, the PDP elects a national chairman from the South, the North will be expected to produce the party’s presidential candidate, and vice-versa. Meanwhile, some aspirants have started to reposition themselves to clinch the Presidential ticket of the party in 2023.
Bala MohammedBauchi State Governor Bala Mohammed 62, came into prominence in 2007 with his election into the Senate to represent the Bauchi South senatorial district under the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP).
He was the leader of the Unity Forum in the Senate that mobilized support for the then Vice President Goodluck Jonathan during the protracted infirmity of late President Umaru Yar’Adua. The Bala group had mounted a support campaign for Jonathan against the backdrop of opposition perceived to have been inspired by a cabal within Yar ‘Adua’s kitchen cabinet.
After Jonathan became President after Yar ‘Adua’s death in 2010, he was Minister of the Federal Capital Territory. He held the position up till 2015 when the PDP lost the Presidency to the APC and four years later contested and won the governorship of Bauchi state in 2019.
As a minister, Bala gained tremendous experience as a consummate administrator who was exposed to international politics as the Mayor of Abuja whose duty also included welcoming all diplomatic corps and personalities and in most cases he personally honoured some of them with diplomatic citizenship.
With the clamour that the next president of Nigeria must be someone from the younger generation of Nigerians with vast political and administrative experience, Bala, a former journalist is believed to be one of the emerging political forces from the North and gained requisite experience as a lawmaker, minister, and now as the executive governor of Bauchi State.
Atiku Abubakar: Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar 77, has made several unsuccessful efforts to climb into Aso Rock. First he contested under the AC ticket in 2007 but lost to the late Umaru Yar’Adua who ran on the platform of the PDP. Atiku returned to the PDP shortly after Yar ‘Adua’s death and struggled in vain for the party’s presidential ticket in 2011.
In 2013, he joined many other prominent PDP bigwigs to dump the PDP for the then newly formed mega opposition party, the All Progressives Congress (APC). He lost the party’s ticket in 2015 to Muhammadu Buhari. He returned to PDP and picked the party’s ticket but he lost again to Buhari in the 2019 general election.
Though, he had been away from Nigeria for what he claimed was for academic reasons, he has since returned and is seen playing host to his numerous supporters, visiting states and participating in most party activities lately probably to oil his political machinery.
Similarly, not a few have come to tag him a “nomadic politician” for his numerous defections from one political party to the other in the course of his political career. However, it’s a plus for him that his home state of Adamawa is in the firm control of the PDP.
Aminu Waziri TambuwalThe Sokoto State Governor may turn out to be one of the strongest contenders in the race for the party ticket. He has been able to maintain a baggage free outlook in his political career. His re-conciliatory approach to politics has continued to endear him to many stakeholders in the opposition party.
Party sources have continued to credit the 55-year-old politician with a sense of balance between his ambition and the common good of his party. He is widely acknowledged by the various contending groups and interests in the party for his stabilizing role in the ongoing efforts at resolving the leadership crisis rocking the PDP.
As chairman of the PDP Governors Forum, Tambuwal, who is currently serving his second and final term as governor, he is seen by many of his compatriots as a stickler for objectivity in all situations. Under his leadership, the PDP Governors Forum has become a force to reckon with in tackling the ruling APC over its obvious poor performance and the administration’s abysmal failure to tame the hydra headed security challenges ravaging the land.
Peter Obi The former Anambra state governor was the PDP’s Vice presidential candidate in the 2019 general election. As a governor, Obi showed his classy touch in governance particularly as it concerns the solutions to the economic quagmire.
Born in 1961, Obi graduated from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka in 1980 with a degree in Philosophy. He spent better parts of his life in the board of many companies and conglomerates. He was elected governor of Anambra State under the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) where he spent eight years and seven months the governor.
He left APGA for the PDP but not after he had successfully worked for the emergence of Willy Obiano as his successor in Anambra.
He is very influential and probably the best ever presidential material from the South East. He is reputed to be the only governor in the history of Nigeria that left billions of naira in the coffers of the government, and without putting the state into debt. He ran a frugal administration and built a reputation for himself as a politician who would rather work for his people than engage in primitive acquisition of wealth for which most of his colleagues have been accused of.
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