It’s Unfair To Have National Chairman, Presidential Candidate From Same Region – PDP Bot Chairma, Walid Jibrin

The Chairman of the board of trustees (BoT) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Walid Jibrin, said it’s unfair for the party’s presidential candidate and the national chairman to hail from the same region. 

Jibrin made this known on Sunday when he featured on Sunday Politics, a program on Channels Television.

Jibrin hails from Nasarawa State in the north, and the National Chairman of the party, Iyorchia Ayu, is from Benue State, also in the north. Also, the party’s presidential candidate in the 2023 election, Atiku Abubakar, hails from Adamawa State in the north.

“You see, to tell the truth, it will not be fair for the president of Nigeria to be from the north, the chairman of the party to be from the north, and to talk of the BoT chairman to also be from the north,” he said.

He made the comment against the backdrop of a festering crisis between Atiku and the Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike.

The crisis rocking the PDP was a spillover from the election of its 2023 presidential flag bearer after jettisoning its existing zoning arrangement.

With the party’s chairman ticket zoned to the north, many had expected to see its presidential ticket zoned to the south region but it was declared open to all interested aspirants.

Atiku clinched the presidential ticket at its last national convention in May, a development that has worsened the quest for equity and fairness in the party.

The Rivers State Governor came second in the primary election held during the convention.

Dissecting the polarised state of the party, Mr. Jibrin said efforts are on to reconcile both Messrs Atiku and Wike.

He said the BoT would not yield to pressure to take sides on the matter but promised to be firm once it received reports from committees set up to appease the warring camps.

“By next week, we will get the report. And when we find out that somebody is wrong in what has happened we will come up openly to tell the party that it is wrong. Whatever we can do, we will do it in the interest of the party to make the party remain as PDP,” Mr. Jibrin explained.

Despite the obvious seriousness of the warring camps in the party, the PDP BoT chairman argued that the crisis has largely been exaggerated.

He said PDP will get itself together in no time and present itself as a formidable opposition party in the 2023 elections.