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From Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja
There are indications that leaders of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) are divided over the zoning of the 2023 presidential ticket.
Daily Sun gathered that the split among party leaders, especially PDP governors was responsible for the sudden shift of the meeting of the National Executive Committee (NEC) earlier scheduled for yesterday, to today.
The PDP National Publicity Secretary, Debo Ologunagba, had told newsmen, in Abuja, that “on Wednesday, at 10 a.m., the caucus meeting will hold, thereafter the Board of Trustees (BoT) meeting and then the NEC meeting.”
Apart from NEC, the PDP BoT is also expected to meet today. The NEC, which is the second highest organ consists of governors elected on the platform of the party, members of the National Working Committee (NWC), BoT members, national caucus, among others.
The party organ was expected to take a decision on the zoning of the 2023 presidential ticket as well as approve the table for the nomination of party candidates for the next general election.
The Bala Mohammed-led Committee, which reviewed the PDP performance in the 2019 polls had recommended that the 2023 presidential ticket be thrown open to all qualified aspirants.
Daily Sun gathered that the NWC had already prepared a draft timetable for the primary as well as schedule of activities for the 2023 polls, which it intends to present to NEC for ratification.
According to the timetable of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), political parties are expected to conduct their primaries between April 4 and June 4, 2022.
Preparatory to the NEC meeting, the party national caucus had met in Abuja on Monday night to build a consensus ahead of NEC. However, after the caucus meeting, the party national secretary, in a notice, announced the rescheduling of the meeting. The party has also convened another caucus meeting for today.
A source told Daily Sun that the rescheduling of the NEC meeting and convening of another caucus meeting is an indication that the leaders of the opposition party were still divided on whether the 2023 presidential ticket should be zoned to the South or thrown open to all qualified aspirants. He said the rescheduling would enable the party consult more on the contentious issue.
Nevertheless, a member of the NWC told Daily Sun that there was nothing to the rescheduling of the NEC meeting. He said PDP only felt there was need for more consultations with party leaders before the meeting.
It was gathered that while some leaders of the party are insisting the presidential ticket should be ceded to the South, others are of the opinion the ticket should be thrown open to brighten the chances of PDP in the next presidential poll.
A member of the party’s NEC told Daily Sun that all along, the thinking of some leaders is that the 2023 presidential candidate should be a northerner.
According to him, “the belief is that APC is likely to zone its ticket to the South. If we go North, we will defeat the APC easily. But some of our leaders, especially those from the South are not seeing it in that light.”
Ahead of today’s NEC and BoT meetings, various interest groups in the PDP were engaged in different parleys, in Abuja, yesterday to fine tune their positions. However, the NWC as part of its consensus building efforts met and had a pre-NEC meeting, at the party secretariat, yesterday night.
