2023: S/West PDP makes strong bid for chairmanship Seat

By Wilfred Eya

Leaders of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the six South West states have resolved that the zone must produce the national chairman in the forthcoming national convention.

The development came even as the  44-member zoning committee led by Gov. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu State which will begin sitting today is faced with the difficult choice of whether the chairmanship seat should come from the North or South.

The choice of zone that will produce the chairman will have implications on where the next presidential candidate of the party for the 2023 election will come from.

A high ranking South West PDP member who did not want his name in print told Daily Sun that leaders of the zone believe the chairmanship seat should be specifically zoned to the South West to compensate for the 2017 situation in which she was unjustly denied the slot after the post had been zoned to her.

He said the leaders who have had series of meetings in different parts of the South West in recent time observed that the denial of the zone the post of the chairman in 2017 led to the dwindling fortune of the PDP in the zone as demonstrated by the 2017 poll results.

Our source said the SW PDP leaders noted that apart from Anambra where a gubernatorial election will hold in November, the zone has two governorship polls pending in Ekiti and Osun states before the 2023 general elections and that having the national chairmanship slot will help seal victory in the two states, thereby shoring up the chances of the party in the zone in the 2023 general elections.

He said the South West leaders now boasts of a united rank more than at any other time in the recent past and if given the chance, will produce a viable, strong and popular consensus candidate capable of uniting the party and leading it to victory in 2023.

He said: “PDP in the South West has a governor, senators from four of its six states – Oyo, Ondo, Ekiti and Osun.”

Our source revealed that PDP leaders in the South West also want to cash in on the dwindling image of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the zone and Nigeria in general.