The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) will likely pick its presidential candidate for the 2023 elections from the northern part of the country, multiple party sources have said.
TheIdeal reports that scores of PDP stalwarts are already positioning to contest various offices, especially the chairmanship and presidential slots.
The party had during its 92nd National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting at the weekend, announced that it will arrive at a zoning formula for the National Working Committee (NWC) at a meeting billed for September 9.
But sources say there is a high likelihood that the party will pick its presidential candidate from the north, while the chairmanship position will be zoned to the South.
It was gathered that those believe to be warming up for the party’s presidential ticket include; former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar; former Governors of Jigawa and Kano States, Sule Lamido and Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso; former Senate President, Bukola Saraki; Sokoto State Governor, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, among others.
For the chairmanship, a former military Governor of Ondo State, Chief Olabode George; the embattled National Chairman of the party, Prince Uche Secondus; former PDP candidate for Ondo State governorship election, Mr. Eyitayo Jegede; Deputy National Chairman (North), Senator Suleiman Nazif; former Governor of Osun State, Ọlagunsoye Oyinlọla; former Kaduna State governor and one time interim chairman of the party, Senator Ahmed Makarfi; Mr Jimi Agbaje, governorship candidate in Lagos; former governor of Gombe State, Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo and former South-West National Vice Chairman, Dr Eddy Olafeso, are eyeing the seat.
It was gathered that Presidential hopefuls from the northern part of the country are supporting southern aspirants for the party leadership which will pave way for the presidency slot to be ceded to the North.
This comes as the struggle for political power among the political gladiators hots up ahead of the party’s national convention slated for October 30 and 31.
The process for the election of new NWC members continues despite the raging crisis in the party which has sparked several litigations and court injunctions.
The embattled National Chairman of the party, Prince Uche Secondus, who was elected in December 2017 for an initial period of four years, but recently suspended by a court, has insisted that his tenure will elapse in December 2021.
Already some bigwigs in the party have commenced scheming in their bid to influence the emergence of their preferred persons as new leaders of the party.
A foundation member of the PDP, Alhaji Aminu Yakudima, was quoted to have said; “Looking at the political terrain, we are thinking that the best way to resolve this permutation is to allow the presidency to go to the North and let the chairmanship go to the South.
“When you look at the political cloud in the country and the permutations that can aggregate, that is the way to go. We look at this as the best option for the PDP as a political party if PDP wants to bounce back.
“It is possible also that the PDP calculation may have an opposite of the permutations of the APC. APC presidential candidate may come from the South. So if PDP plays this card, it may bounce back.
“What it means is that if the APC fields a presidential candidate from the South and the PDP fields from the North, PDP may bounce back.”
The PDP National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, in his reaction however, declined to comment on the zoning of the party’s presidential candidate.
He said, “The zoning the party is going to do now is not about the presidential ticket. It is the zoning of party offices. The zoning committee of the national convention is to zone party offices.”
