PDP Consensus Move Collapses One Week To Presidential Convention

The fresh moves by leaders of the People’s Democratic Party to have a consensus presidential candidate has reportedly collapsed,THE WHISTLER can report.

The Chairman, Board of Trustees of the Party, Walid Jubril, had stated days ago that the party was committed to arriving at a consensus presidential candidate and working towards that with the involvement of all presidential aspirants.

Jubrin had said, “We have agreed to sit together to review that (consensus) very seriously and come up with a suitable candidate to lead our party in the contest.

“We are not stopping any aspirant from contesting but we have to resolve to consensus. All the aspirants from the south east, south west and the north are working together to produce a consensus.”

This paper had reported that 15 aspirants were cleared by the David Mark-led Screening Committee and will contest the presidential primary scheduled for last weekend of May.

 Findings by our correspondent on Friday, one week to the presidential primary,  showed that the move to produce a consensus candidate broke down due to lack of agreement among the aspirants.

 “Moves were made again to ensure we reach a consensus but that move failed because of an important part of the conditions, which was that, this is the time for the South East to present a presidential candidate,” a source told our correspondent in confidence on Friday.

He explained that the Board of Trustee Chairman, the National Chairman of the Party, Iyorchia Ayu and the Chairman of the Zoning Committee and Benue State Governor met repeatedly but “could not get any headway because no zone accepted.

“The argument from the Northern aspirants was that if the PDP must zone then it must be zoned to the South East. But the other two zones insisted that there should be a broad zoning to the South instead of micro zoning.

“That’s the issue. So, the move broke down and as it stands everyone will head to the primary election,” he said.

The PDP had set up the Ortom-led zoning committee to arrive at a consensus but the report of the committee, which was given to the National Executive Committee of the party, provided for open presidential ticket.

This has angered long-time agitators for power rotation such as the Ohanaeze Ndigbo, the Afenifere and the Middle Belt Forum, including PDP Governors’ Forum, who have been vehement in their campaign for power shift for the sake of unity of the country.

THE WHISTLER contacted the spokesman of the PDP, Debo Ologunagba, but his line could not be reached  and there was no reply to the text message sent to him.