The Senior Special Assistant on Public Communications and Social Media to the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Mr. Lere Olayinka, has declared that the latest zoning decision of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) National Executive Committee (NEC) is a clear vindication of the position earlier taken by the FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, and the G-5 governors in 2022.
The NEC, in its recent meeting, resolved that while the position of the PDP National Chairman should remain in the North, the 2027 presidential ticket of the party would be zoned to the South.
Reacting to the development in a statement, Olayinka said the party had only confirmed the correctness of the warnings and demands made by Wike and his allies three years ago.
He stated: “Now that the party has finally admitted its mistake of ignoring Wike and the G-5 in 2022, and has decided to adopt the exact position they canvassed for, can anyone deny that they have been vindicated?
“Recall that at the time, Wike and the G-5 governors maintained that the PDP could not retain both its presidential candidate and National Chairman in the same region. Since Alhaji Atiku Abubakar from the North had emerged as the presidential candidate, they insisted that Senator Iyorchia Ayu, also from the North, must vacate office to allow a southerner lead the party. But Ayu refused to step down, backed by Atiku and his camp. The result was the electoral disaster of 2023 and the post-election crises that followed.”
According to Olayinka, the PDP has now been forced to accept the very position it rejected, but only after suffering the consequences.
“The NEC has now resolved that with the National Chairmanship remaining in the North, the presidency must go to the South in 2027. Is this not the same position Wike clearly stated three years ago? Unfortunately, instead of heeding that advice, they clung to both positions and led the PDP into avoidable defeat,” he said.
He, however, questioned the timeliness of the new arrangement, warning that it may already be too late to restore balance within the party.
“They are only correcting the error of 2022 in 2025. But is it not already late? If the presidency is now zoned to the South, it means the South should be allowed to complete eight years before power returns to the North in 2031. That is the only logical way to justify this new arrangement,” Olayinka stressed.
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