By Henry Umoru

Ahead of the 2027 Presidential election, a group under the aegis of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP 100 Percent, has appealed to the party’s 2023 Presidential candidate, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, to drop his ambition of becoming the country’s number one citizen and throw his weight behind a southern candidate.

The group is making the plea following leaders, stakeholders and members dumping the PDP for the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC in the last couple of days, adding that the action would help save the party with confidence building on the part of the people.

Addressing journalists in Abuja on Friday, the group’s national coordinator, Dennis Shima, took a swipe at Atiku Abubakar, blaming him for laying the foundation of the crisis, the trauma and woes the PDP was facing at the moment, leading to the mass exodus of party men and women, and being the mastermind of those who sabotaged former President Goodluck Jonathan when he led five governors to defect to the APC.

Shima said, ‘’At this critical turning point in our democratic history, it is imperative to call on all and sundry within PDP to support a southern presidential candidate to complete eight years in the presidency after eight years of former President Buhari from 2015 to 2023.

‘’Southern Nigeria has credible, young presidential materials that can match the incumbent President Bola Tinubu rather than recycling the old brigade that continues to dominate the political scene.

‘’It is worthy of note that most of the people who are agitating for a Northern Presidential candidate of PDP are protagonists of Atiku Abubakar, who unfortunately forgot to mention how magnanimous PDP has been to him after he and others in the North orchestrated the defeat of PDP in 2015.

‘’PDP would have been 27 years in the presidency of Nigeria’s Fourth Republic if not for the activities of New-PDP, a fractional PDP mainstream group, which joined forces against the PDP presidential candidate in 2015.

‘’The same scenario repeated itself in 2023 with a group of five governors led by former Governor Nyesom Wike who is now FCT Minister under APC led Federal Government.”

The national coordinator of the PDP group further said, ‘’Recall that Atiku would have remained in the APC-led Federal Government under President Buhari if President Buhari had fulfilled his promise to carry him alongside in his Change Mantra-minded federal government. Unfortunately, President Buhari didn’t carry Atiku along; hence, he returned to the PDP in December 2017.’’

Shima, while advocating for young and vibrant politicians in the South like Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State to support becoming the PDP presidential ticket in 2027, urged party members not to mind the role played by Makinde in the G5 headed by former Governor of Rivers State and the current FCT Minister as well as the role the Oyo State governor played in the defunct G5, explaining that it was based on equity, fairness and justice.

In justifying Makinde’s membership in G5, the Coordinator said, ‘’It was odd to field a presidential candidate from the North immediately after 8 years of a Northerner in the office of the president of Nigeria in the person of General Buhari in 2023.

In retrospect, the PDP group said that ‘’In 2014/2015, members of the PDP, under the auspices of New-PDP, led by Atiku, orchestrated the defeat of PDP incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan and paved the way for an APC-led Federal Government. This is undeniably the reason why Nigeria is where it is today in terms of insecurity and economic woes.

‘’In 2017, PDP leaders in a Constitutional Review Committee headed by Senator Gabriel Torwua Suswam deliberately amended the PDP Constitution to allow for returnees like Atiku Abubakar and others to have equal rights as members of PDP who never defected at all since the inception of PDP.

‘’We all clapped and affirmed at Eagle Square on 10 December 2017. Before then, the PDP had a constitutional probation period of 2 years of active membership before one could be allowed to contest for offices within the PDP and public offices under the PDP as a vehicle to elective public offices.

‘’Recall that Atiku returned to PDP officially in December 2017 and on 5 December 2017 at the NEC Hall of PDP National Secretariat where he addressed a World Press Conference to justify why he left the led Federal Government under then President Buhari a few years after he orchestrated their coming to power. Atiku clearly returned to PDP because all his hope was lost in the President Buhari-led Federal Government, unlike former Governor of Rivers State, Mr Wike, who is FCT Minister as a former leader of the defunct G5 or Integrity Group of 2023.

‘’In 2018, Atiku Abubakar was considered by most PDP national leaders as the most suitable candidate to unseat President Buhari, considering the fact that he is from the North, where President Buhari hails from. PDP Southerners allowed and didn’t contest against the aspirants from the North.

‘’ This is why it is imperative to consider the most suitable candidate from the South like Engr Oluseyi Abiodun Makinde to fly the PDP presidential flag in 2027 against his fellow Kinsman President Tinubu, who has failed Yoruba Nation in the aspect of good governance of Nigeria’s federation. Because of the insecurity of everything ranging from lives and property, the value of naira to dollars, and political instability, among other unconstitutional practices like suspension of elected Executive and Legislative Arms of Government in Rivers State.

‘’Southerners in PDP had qualified aspirants for the 2019 Presidential ticket but allowed the North because it was a strategy to defeat President Buhari with his relative or fellow northerner. Therefore, it is fair, just and equitable enough for Northerners in PDP who are qualified like Atiku to jettison 2027 Presidential aspirations like Southerners did for the North in 2019.

‘’In 2022, the PDP presidential ticket was made open because the North couldn’t defeat their own in 2019, but luckily for the North, Atiku Abubakar got the Presidential ticket, unlike the 2019 scenario, when the PDP presidential candidate was from the North while the PDP National Chairman was from the South in Person of. Prince Uche Secondus, the North, insisted on having both presidential candidate and PDP national chairman at the expense of the 2023 presidency, unfortunately.

‘’Therefore, PDP stakeholders across the board, in the interest of democracy, should support a dependable PDP National Chairman from the North in order to avoid a repeat of the 2023 worst-case scenario when the North clings to the 2023 presidential candidacy; PDP National Chairman and Director General of 2023 presidential campaign council.

‘’Now, in 2025, some Northern stakeholders of PDP are hell-bent on retaining the position of PDP National chairman and 2027 presidential candidacy. Is not this a clear call for the unfortunate 2023 scenario to repeat itself? We are a living witness to these unfolding realities that need to be tamed democratically as soon as possible in the forthcoming 2025 PDP NEC slated for May 27th.’’

Vanguard recalls that the lingering crisis in the then-ruling PDP degenerated when, on 1 September 2013, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and seven governors broke away, formed a faction and named new national officers for it.

The governors were Sule Lamido of Jigawa, Musa Kwankwaso of Kano, Aliyu Wamakko of Sokoto, Murtala Nyako of Adamawa, Abdulfatah Ahmed of Kwara, and Babangida Aliyu of Niger.

The governors and their teeming supporters had earlier stormed out of the Eagle Square, the venue of the PDP Special Convention, after they alleged that the list of delegates for the election of national officers of the party, scheduled to be conducted at the convention, and the contestants had been manipulated by the leadership to usher in their preferred candidates.

The embittered governors, some senators and House of Representatives members, as well as other statutory delegates from their respective states, later converged on the Yar’Adua Centre, Abuja, where they unfolded the agenda and the names of the national officers of their faction. Some former national officers of the party made the list of new officers of the new PDP. They were Abubakar Baraje, who was named the new National Chairman; Olagunsoye Oyinyola, National Secretary; and Sam Sam Jaja, who emerged as the New Deputy National Chairman of the faction.

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