WALE ELEGBEDE 
There is fresh headache brewing for the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, ahead of the 2023 general election, following the decision of some leaders of the party not to throw their weight behind the former vice president’s candidature for the polls.
Atiku, who lost the 2019 presidential election to President Muhammadu Buhari, emerged as the opposition party’s standard-bearer again for 2023 after a keenly contested primary last month. The opposition party had urged all its stakeholders to work together after the primaries for the success of the PDP in 2023, however, the party started suffering post-primary crisis after Atiku chose Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta State as his running mate despite the recommendation of some party leaders that Governor Nyesom Wike, should fill the vice presidential position.
However, the decision has since created a crack amongst stakeholders in the party especially after Atiku said he picked the Delta governor because he had the qualities to be a President, adding that he (Okowa) “is a President- in-waiting.” In a tweet on his veri-fied Twitter handle @ GovAyoFayose yesterday, the former Governor of Ekiti State, Ayodele Fayose, said he is backing a southern presidency in 2023 despite his party, PDP, fielding a northerner in the person of Atiku. “The current president of Nigeria is a 2-term Northern Presidency, thus implying that it MUST be a Southern Presidency in 2023 or NOTHING. Awa ‘South’ lo kan’.
Nigerians should await details soon. “The PDP Constitution provides for a rotational Presidency. Section 3(c) provides that the Party shall pursue its aims & objectives by adhering to the policy of the rotation & zoning of Party & Public elective offices in pursuance of the principle of equity, justice and fairness,” he wrote. Writing in Yoruba language, Fayose also tweeted that “awa south lo kan” — which means “it is the turn of the south”.
He also added in the tweet that Nigerians should “await details soon”. However, reacting Atiku’s media aide, Mazi Paul Ibe, allayed fears about crisis in the PDP, saying that the party’s candidate is working behind the scenes to assuage all post-primary issues. Speaking exclusively with New Telegraph, he said: “We are working behind the scene to assuage aggrieved feelings in the party. In every contest, people must be aggrieved and Atiku recognizes this.
He also knows that in order to wrest power, it is imperative that the party must be united. He is working resolutely to patch the cracks. He will not rest until everyone is brought on board for the bigger task of ejecting APC that has brought untold hardship to Nigerians. There are no enemies in PDP but those who have divided us and foisted energy crisis, tattered economy and ASUU strike.”
