2023: Don’t Allow Weak Aspirant With ‘Stupendous Wealth’ Clinch Presidential Ticket, Metuh Warns PDP

…Urges PDP Govs To Pick Consensus Candidate From South East

Former national spokesperson of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Olisa Metuh, has cautioned the opposition party against allowing a wealthy but weak aspirant emerge as its presidential candidate in 2023.

Metuh advised that to avoid falling into the trap of fielding an unpopular candidate, the PDP must “harken to the voice of the led” to come up with someone that can win the 2023 Presidency.

The party chieftain gave the advice in an open letter he wrote to governors of the PDP from the Southern region.

“….there is a clear and present danger of achieving candidacy with contacts and stupendous display of wealth but not achieving victory at the general election. It will definitely be a PYRRHIC VICTORY to nominate a strong aspirant but a weak candidate,” he warned.

Metuh, in the letter, also made a U-turn on his earlier opposition to the zoning of the PDP’s presidential ticket in 2023.

In his initial open letter to members of the PDP zoning committee, Metuh had said that “the South-East of the PDP” deserves to produce the party’s 2023 presidential candidate but noted that “oftentimes, what is desirable may not be achievable and therefore there is need for the PDP to thread carefully and be sensitive on how to tackle the North where the All Progressives Congress (APC) controls 14 states as opposed to only four states by us. In 2015, we adopted sole candidacy and dampened the morale of members to openly campaign for the PDP.”

He had said that even though zoning has been in existence since PDP’s inception, “It may therefore appear inequitable, unfair and repugnant to natural justice for a decent and noble party like the PDP, having allowed individuals to campaign for such a long period with the attendant human and material cost, to undemocratically truncate their aspiration with zoning at this late hour.”

But writing on Friday, Metuh reversed himself and backed the zoning of the party’s presidential ticket to the South-East region.

His words, “You will recall that I joined millions of Party members to oppose the zoning of our Presidential ticket. The reason is to avoid the conspiracy to annoint (sic) an ordained aspirant who has the unfettered access to limitless funds for the primaries.

“I write to you as someone who participated actively during the process to select most of you as candidates for the 2015 elections. Fortunately, you all can attest to my integrity and altruism during that process as I was totally concerned more with the peace and progress of our party than any mundane or personal interest, just as in the process right now.

“It is more like an open secret that the Southern governors will meet most probably this weekend to drum up support for a Southern candidate. Millions of our members will jubilate if this actually is meant to achieve a South Eastern candidacy. Unfortunately, this is so far from your planning at the moment.

“I would like to draw your attention to the reality that Nigerians actually desire a South Eastern Presidency to end the civil war syndrome and once for all, achieve a true national unity. More importantly, some of the best aspirants are actually from the Southeast.

“For competence, merit, peace, fairness and many other reasons, the Southern Governors Forum of the PDP should pick a consensus candidate from the South East.

“Nigerians desire a Southern Eastern President but then, only a National Consensus can achieve this perfect yearning. Let the Southern Governors lead this quest for the overall interest of our party and our nation, Nigeria.”