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AS a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) since its formative stages in 1998, I make bold to say that after the registration of the party by INEC, it was glaring that it was the only political party with a national outlook. The other two dominant political parties, Alliance for Democracy (AD) and All Nigeria People’s Party (APP) were regional parties. The former was formed to champion and pursue the Yoruba agenda while the latter was thinly dominated by the northerners. The mere fact that AD and APP teamed up to present a common candidate in the person of Chief Olu Falae against Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, the candidate of the PDP has further buttressed this fact. Today, the party is enmeshed in a crisis which if not resolved, could affect the fortune of the party in the 2023 presidential election. At the center of the crisis is the person of former Senate President, Dr. Iyorchia Ayu, who is currently the national Chairman of the main opposition Party, the PDP.
Timothy Osadolor the deputy national leader of the People’s Democratic party was blunt in an interview he granted The Punch, which was used as news features that adorned the front page when he said“the Peoples’Democratic party needs the 5 aggrieved Governor, led byNyesomWike and that though the party could run without them but this could be difficult” it is pertinent to state that with the current trend of events where Gov. Nyesom Wike has endorsed Lagos governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, for a second term, it will be very difficult for the PDP to win the 2023 presidential election without the aggrieved governors known as G5. Everybody must be carried along. I will therefore candidly advise the TIV academic to voluntary tender his resignation forthwith, if he loves Atiku Abubakar, a veteran contender to the office of President. If he heeds this advice, he will knowingly or unknowingly be positioning Atiku at the entrance of Aso Rock Villa before the ballot, because Nigerians are tired of the inept APC Government led by President Muhammadu Buhari.
Governor Wike should thereafter also burry his ego, join the PDP Presidential campaign council and work for Atiku’s success instead of destroying the party he claimed to have jointly built and sustained. He should also as a leading light in this crisis and its solution desist from dragging Ayu’s family into the party’s debacle. The yearning and aspiration of the aggrieved G5 governors could also be boosted by screening competent candidates with proven track record as National Chairman. It is also by so doing that the Emi lo kan and Awa lo kan syndrome (i.e. it is my turn or our turn) which is and will further overheat the polity, snowballing into political crisis, could be curtailed. If the turn by turn syndrome is to be seriously espoused for fairness, equity and ethnic balancing, Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of Labour Party from the South-East, is supposed to be clamoring for it. Those who believe in this school of thought and are seriously rooting for it are the nonagerianAfenifere leader, Chief Ayo Adebayo and ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo. Butunfortunately for Obi, his Labour party structure cannot earn him the presidency, at least not in 2023. Simplicita.
I remember meeting Obi in Lagos several times. There was a day I almost ran into the duo of Obi and former Biafra warlord, Ikemba Nnewi, Chukwemeka Odimegwu Ojukwu, at the Federal Palace Hotel on Ahmadu Bello way Victoria-Island, Lagos. As they were about to board an in-house elevator in the hotel, when Obi realised that I was looking at him adoringly, he pointed a copy of the speech delivered and yelled at me. He perhaps felt that I wanted to interview him because I had interviewed former Head of state, General Yakubu Gowon, and Late Gambian President Sir Dauda Jawara before, without booking any appointment. Frankly speaking, I was impressed by his simplicity. It was this attribute coupled with his grasp of the nation’s economy that propelled Atiku Abukakar to nominate him as running-mate in 2019. He should therefore look for a way of re-aligning with his former boss, even at the eleventh hour, in the interest of the Igbo speaking people of Nigeria. This is because he has to choose between the eight years of Atiku’s tenure or the sixteen years of Tinubu’s presidency before an Igbo man could aspire to be president.Political analysts have expressed the feeling that electing an Igbo man could also eliminate the break-up idea. The wound of the Nigerian civil war has not totally healed, while the scar is still conspicuously visible. We don’t want another civil war from Emi lo kan (It’s my turn) syndrome.
Given this circumstance, Atiku has become the child of necessity, and Governor Wikeshould allow PDP train to win Nigeria just as Senator Demola Adeleke won Osun State.
- Awoyemi, a media consultant, writes in from Ile Ife, Osun State.
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