PDP’s 2027 zoning decision affirms Wike’s position – Lere Olayinka

The Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) decision to zone its 2027 presidential ticket to the South is seen as a vindication of FCT Minister Nyesom Wike.

Lere Olayinka, Senior Special Assistant to the Minister on Public Communications and Social Media, stated this in a press release on Tuesday in Abuja.

He noted that the resolution taken by the PDP National Executive Committee (NEC) at its meeting on Monday to retain its national chairmanship in the North affirmed the position Wike and his G-5 group took in 2022.

Olayinka added that the NEC’s decision, coming three years after the initial disagreement, showed that the party had now acknowledged its earlier error in not heeding the counsel of Wike and his G-5 allies.

“Now, that the party has realised its mistake of not listening to Wike and the G-5 in 2022, and have chosen to do what they said, three years after, have they not been vindicated now?” Olayinka asked rhetorically.

He said Wike had simply demanded that the party chairmanship be moved to the South if the PDP wanted to win the presidency.

Wike and the G-5 had insisted that the presidential candidate and national chairman should not come from the same geopolitical zone.

Olayinka noted that since Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, a Northerner, became the presidential candidate, Sen. Iyorchia Ayu, also from the North, should have stepped down to allow a Southern National Chairman, “but he refused.”

According to Olayinka, this contributed to PDP’s 2023 electoral defeat and subsequent internal instability.

He said that, sadly, the party’s leadership “knew the truth” but chose to ignore it.

“But today, the NEC resolved that since the National Chairman of the party is zoned to the North, the PDP 2027 Presidential ticket be zoned to the South.

“They have realised the mistake they made in 2022 and are correcting it in 2025.

“But isn’t it too late, given that zoning can only be justified if the South completes its eight-year tenure and the presidency returns to the North in 2031?” Olayinka asked.

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