Ahead of its presidential primary election fixed for May 28, a fresh crisis looms for the Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP) as governors from the South have insisted that the presidential ticket for the 2023 election must not be an open contest.
This position has pitched them against two of their northern colleagues, in the persons of Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, Bala Mohammed, governors of Sokoto and Bauchi States; former vice-president, Atiku Abubakar; Ex-Senate President, Bukola Saraki and banker-turned politician, Muhammed Hayatu-Deen, all of whom have since joined the presidential race on the platform of the PDP.
Rising from a meeting, which was held at the Akwa Ibom State Governors Lodge on Friday night, the governors insisted that the PDP, ‘a party founded on the principle of equity’, must be fair to the South by zoning its presidential ticket to the South as it did in 2019 when the contest was solely a Northern affair.
Briefing newsmen at the end of the meeting, Abia State governor, Okezie Ikpeazu, dismissed the argument that zoning will put the party in a weak position in its quest to wrestle power from the APC in 2023.
On the argument that nomination forms had already been sold to aspirants from the North, Ikpeazu noted that not being able to stand firm with the truth is the reason the country is in a huge mess today.
At the meeting were Governors Udom Emmanuel (Akwa Ibom), Nyesom Wike (Rivers), Okezie Ikpeazu (Abia), and Seyi Makinde of Oyo state.
Others include Duoye Diri and Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Bayelsa and Enugu states respectively.
Edo state governor, Godwin Obaseki and his Delta state counterpart, Ifeanyi Okowa were notable absentees when the Southern governors converged to take a position on zoning, Friday night.
Meanwhile, Saraki, Tambuwal, Bala Mohammed and Hayatu-Deen have not given up hope on the possibility of presenting a consensus candidate at the PDP primary election. While their southern counterparts were at the Akwa Ibom Governors lodge for a meeting, the four pro-consensus advocates met at an undisclosed location, ostensibly discussing strategies on how they can clinch the ticket ahead of the polls.
