PDP May Ignore Power Rotation Principle In Its Choice Of 2023 Presidential Candidate

The main opposition party, the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP), appears to be drifting in the path of abandoning the zoning principle as one of the unwritten criteria for choosing its Presidential Candidate for the 2023 Presidential election.

The PDP’s National Working Committee (NWC), in its bid to prepare the party well enough for the next Presidential election in 2023 and avoid mistakes made in the 2019 Presidential elections, set up a Committee to investigate factors leading to its loss in the general election in 2019.

The Bauchi State Governor, Senator Bala Muhammed-led Committee, in its report, while recognizing the importance of zoning to picking the Presidential Candidate, recommended that the 2023 Presidential ticket should be thrown open to all members irrespective of their region, ethnicity, or religion – a suggestion which appears to be alien to the party.

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The campaign for zoning candidates for the presidency has been the norm, even in the ruling party.

According to some prominent leaders in the Southeast and Southwest, the report showed that PDP executives appeared to have sold out to the ploy of few high-ranking persons in the party who are positioning themselves for the Presidency in 2023.

Recall that in 2015 the All Progressives Party (APC) beat the PDP  when ex-President Goodluck Jonathan became the first incumbent president to lose a reelection bid.

With the APC now in its sixth year, President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration has lost popularity, and the party’s chances of retaining the presidential seat are believed to be growing slimmer as the election approaches – especially given the APC rode to power on the promises of diversifying the economy, securing the country and fighting corruption.

PDP sure has a powerful northern candidate, Atiku Abubakar,  a Nigerian politician and businessman who served as the Vice President of Nigeria from 1999 to 2007 during the presidency of Olusegun Obasanjo but an election where the candidate is expected to come from the South. While they have a potential winner in the shape of Oyo State Governor Seyi Makinde, the ruling APC is reportedly trying to lure him across to their camp.