The 2023 presidential election is mainly between the PDP and the APC. Ordinarily, it should have been between PDP and Labour Party (LP) presidential candidate, Peter Obi, if competence will be the sole criterion for electing the next president of Nigeria.
Since the governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike, lost the presidential primary election and also the vice presidential nomination of the party, the PDP has been in turmoil. Wike’s primary demand for truce is that the national chairman of the party, Dr Iyorchia Ayu, must vacate his position and cede the seat to a southerner before the general elections.
Wike’s agitation is altruistic and understandable as the presidential candidate, the national chairman and the director-general of the presidential campaign council cannot all come from the northern region of the country.
However, one begins to wonder if the southern region of the country will collapse or cease to exist if that position is not ceded or conceded to the region before the general elections.
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Immediately late President Yar’Adua was elected into office in 2007, the position of the national chairman of the party which was held by then Sen. Ahmadu Alli, was ceded to the south to balance the pendulum of power rotation. And that should have been the case in the instant situation in the PDP.
Will southern Nigeria or southern PDP go into extinction between now and May 29, 2023 if it does not control the national chairmanship position? At times, one begins to wonder again if the group of G5 governors truly and actually wish or pray that PDP wins the presidential election.
Do they want the national chairmanship position at all costs so that they can control the affairs of the party if the PDP loses the presidential election? Do they pray that the PDP loses the election so that they can take charge of the party in preparation for the 2027 general elections? If they truly wish the party wins the election, how do they expect that they will continue to control the party after the general elections if Atiku becomes the president of Nigeria?
Even if Ayu steps down now and they succeed in imposing their preferred candidate as national chairman, how sure are they that Atiku – as the president of the country and the leader of the party, if PDP wins – will retain that chairman or choose another southerner because the seat must definitely go to the South?
This is the time that Ayu must make the sacrifice by relinquishing the position to Wike and his group. Ayu has to stoop to conquer. Every sacrifice worth making in order to stop APC from continuing to rule this country beyond next year must be made by all Nigerians including Ayu.
I, therefore, plead with Sen. Ayu to vacate the position from January in order to accommodate the grievances of the G5. If Ayu truly loves millions of suffering Nigerians and Atiku, he must make that difficult sacrifice by resigning.
Wike has gone too far in his gallery display that he can never change his mind on his demand for Ayu’s resignation. Having lost two battles–the presidential and the vice presidential–he would never give up on his current agitation. Atiku needs the G5 governors and their millions of votes in the forthcoming general election that promises to be perhaps the most contentious general election in the history of Nigeria. Can Ayu make the sacrifice?
Ifeanyi Maduako wrote from Owerri via [email protected]
