The meeting was the second of its kind by the aspirants in the last five days.
Leading presidential aspirants in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have again met to discuss their options as debate on the party’s zoning formula continues ahead of the 2023 General Elections.
While the hurdle of selecting who leads the party to the general poll was eventually crossed in October 2021 after months of leadership turbulence, Nigeria’s largest opposition party, just like its ruling counterpart, APC, has not declared the zoning of its presidential ticket ahead of the polls.
With the southern politicians clamouring for the ticket to be zoned to the region, their northern counterparts also want the ticket zoned to their region, a decision that may jettison the PDP rotation tradition.
The party has over the years rotated the ticket for the top office between the two regions, a position its new leadership has promised to maintain as its gathered steam for the 2023 elections.
The seat was last zoned to the northern region in favour of Nigeria’s former vice-president, Atiku Abubakar, who flew the party’s flag in the 2019 election.
Mr Abubakar lost to the incumbent, Muhammadu Buhari, of the APC.
“PDP has a history of rotating our offices. Anybody who doesn’t get it this time should wait after the tenure of whoever will be our next president,” the national chairman of the party, Iyorchia Ayu, strongly reiterated last week.
Ignoring this position, the leading aspirants at a meeting attended by Mr Abubakar, a former Senate President, Bukola Saraki; Governors Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto State and Bala Muhammmed of Bauchi, on Monday, discussed consensus building.
The meeting was the second of its kind by the aspirants, with the exception of Mr Abubakar, in the last five days. A similar meeting with the trio in attendance was held last Thursday.
“I had a meeting tonight with @bukolasaraki, Tambuwal, @SenBalaMohammed and Hayatudden to discuss the future of our party and Nigeria. I look forward to continuing our dialogue and building #OneNigeria,” Mr Abubakar posted on his verified Twitter account.
With more details, the focus of the meeting was also shared by Messrs Saraki and Mohammed an hour after using the same social media platform.
“Earlier tonight, alongside Governor @AWTambuwal, Governor @SenBalaMohammed, and Alhaji Mohammed Hayatuddeen, we visited former Vice President Alhaji @Atiku Abubakar to consult with him on our ongoing discussions about consensus building in our great party, @OfficialPDPNig,” the ex-Senate President also posted.
While the PDP has not come to an agreement on where to zone the ticket, another former Senate president, Pius Anyim, who has shown interest in the position, said that the party must respect zoning if it wants victory in 2023.
His comment came after the Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike’s attack other top contenders while declaring his ambition to run for president in 2023 on Sunday.
He argued that he had contributed more to the party than any other aspirant in the race.
“Let these people who are interested in presidency in the PDP tell us their contributions. You claimed to be one of the founding fathers of the party, but you left and came back; you have become an ordinary person in the new PDP.
“If you form a company and run away because the company is not doing well, then you come back and found that it is now doing well, will you want to come and take over?” Mr Wike carpeted the likes of Messrs Tambuwal and Saraki who at a point left the party in their quest for presidential ticket.