Sunday Ani
A group of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) stakeholders in the Southwest has urged the party to put her house in order ahead of 2023, as it cannot afford to be in the opposition for another four years after.
A statement by the group’s Executive Director Mr. Bukky Adeojo in Lagos yesterday, stressed the need to cure the party of the malignant virus of division and disharmony bedevilling it ahead of the 2023 general election .
Adeojo noted that it was time for PDP members in Nigeria and in the Diaspora to close ranks and ensure that the party chairmanship position remained in the south, especially southwest that has been denied the position for too long.
The stakeholders, however, suggested that the party’s presidential zoning arrangement should be rested for now, even they noted that what is urgently required is for the party to pick  a northern presidential candidate with pedigree and clout to salvage the country from the current sorry state, the All Progressives Congress has led it to.
Adeojo further reiterated that what the party needed was to field a candidate with the capability to ruthlessly tackle insecurity, joblessness and unemployment, poverty and other worrisome conditions that plagues Nigeria and Nigerians.
He said: “I am of the opinion that our great party PDP cannot afford to be in the opposition for another four years because of what is happening to Nigerians at present.
“Nigerians are suffering, crying and wailing that they need another party; an alternative to what they are experiencing today.
“One that will bring succour and joy to every home like we used to have in 2015. For this to happen, PDP have to put their house in order to occupy this position in 2023 and if we don’t get it right internally, resolving all crisis ailing us from within, it may spell doom for our party.
“Given my clear view of our national polity in relation with what obtains in our party, I want to propose that the chairmanship position of the party be zoned back to the south, so that an acceptable candidate, who is a well known and respected crowd puller, and who is loved by everybody in PDP from the North, can emerge as our presidential candidate.”
He also advised that the rotational zoning arrangement should be jettisoned, because if the party travels that route and eventually fields a candidate that has no clout, it might relapse to an opposition party again.
“We need to start with our party chairmanship position. Let the chairman that will drive the project 2023 be a vibrant, energetic and respected mobiliser. The current chairman is a candidate, who has done creditably well, having performed brilliantly during the last election, so if the party still wants him to retain his position, that’s fine and good.
However, if the party intends to rotate it to another zone in the south, it is equally okay but let’s not forget that a particular zone has not produced the chairmanship in the last 20 or 21 years, and that is the Southwest zone.
“I see no reason the next chairman of the party should not come from the southwest.
“We have able hands; we have young and articulate mobilisers as well as respectable candidates in the zone, who can lead the party at the national level and who can also drive the project 2023 for us.
“If we get our internal democracy right, we will get it right in 2023. Our position as an organisation is to get it right; get a candidate who will be accepted by our teeming members and supporters.
“Age is but a number. We have seen cases where 70 or even 80-year-old have performed creditably well; the examples abound all over the world.
“We  don’t have to play into the hands of APC again in 2023. Let’s field a candidate who has the spread across the six geo-political zone in Nigeria. Let the candidate emerge as our consensus candidate; one that will be accepted by all ethnic nationalities. That is the candidate we need.
“We need a candidate that can pull crowds from every nook and cranny of the country; one who can tour the country round and draw out massive support,” he said.