AHEAD of 2023 elections, strong indications have emerged that the Senate Caucus of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, is canvassing open race for presidential candidates of the party.
Vanguard gathered that some PDP senators were already brainstorming among themselves on the possible ways of jettisoning zoning for a credible candidate from any zone to win election.
Though a position has not been taken on this, a source told Vanguard that this became a serious issue as the senators were discussing among themselves during plenary on Tuesday on possible ways of coming up with this position in order to get a very strong and formidable candidate that will defeat the candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in the forthcoming 2023 Presidential election.
According to the source, when the senators arrive on the same page, the position will then be presented to the governors to discuss, especially at Wednesday’s meeting coming ahead of the National Convention slated for October 30 and subsequently harmonize their position and forward to the National Executive Committee, NEC of the party.
The source said: “ As PDP senators, we are brainstorming on how to come up with a position that the presidential candidate of the party for 2023 be left open and not zoning, in order for the party to get a very credible candidate.
‘’As you know, we will discuss with our governors, so we can be on the same page. We have not agreed yet, we were only going around at the chamber discussing with ourselves.”
The NEC meeting, which is the highest organ of the party, is expected to hold its meeting a week to the National Convention if there is no court ruling stopping the convention, as the the National Chairman, Prince Uche Secondus, has approached the Appeal Court challenging the party’s move to stop his tenure before the December expiration date.
A source said: “The party’s timetable shows that the NEC meeting should come up next week, either on Thursday or Friday, barring any stoppage. Or, just let me say we are going to meet very soon on the matter. The NEC will ratify the decisions reached by both the governors’ forum and the zoning committee.
‘’PDP governors are meeting on Wednesday to discuss very salient and germane issues, including the forthcoming national convention, the zone that should produce the national chairman of the party, the 2023 Presidency, amongst others, but the venue of the meeting where they would meet is not known yet.’’
It was gathered that the decision was arrived at after Thursday’s inconclusive meeting of the party’s Zoning Committee for National Offices, headed by Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu State.
Six thousand delegates across the 36 states, the Federal Capital Territory, FCT and 774 local government areas are expected at the convention.
It was gathered that after the Enugu meeting, the body language is that the South should retain the position of national chairman of the party, while the North will get the presidential slot in 2023.
Credit: Vanguard News Nigeria
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