Abuja: The Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) recent decision to zone its 2027 presidential ticket to the South has reignited political discourse around equity and internal party dynamics.
For FCT Minister Nyesom Wike and his allies in the G-5, the move is more than strategic—it’s a long-awaited vindication.
Lere Olayinka, Senior Special Assistant to the Minister on Public Communications and Social Media, stated this in a press release on Tuesday in Abuja.
He noted that the resolution taken by the PDP National Executive Committee (NEC) at its meeting on Monday to retain its national chairmanship in the North affirmed the position taken by Wike and his G-5 group in 2022.
Olayinka added that the NEC’s decision, coming three years after the initial disagreement, showed that the party had now acknowledged its earlier error in not heeding the counsel of Wike and his G-5 allies.
“Now that the party has realised its mistake of not listening to Wike and the G-5 in 2022, and has chosen to do what they said, three years later, have they not been vindicated now?” Olayinka asked rhetorically.
He said Wike had demanded that the party chairmanship be moved to the South if the PDP wanted to win the presidency.
Wike and the G-5 had insisted that the presidential candidate and national chairperson should not come from the same geopolitical zone.
Olayinka noted that since Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, a Northerner, became the presidential candidate, Sen. Iyorchia Ayu, also from the North, should have stepped down to allow a Southern National Chairman, “but he refused.”
According to Olayinka, this contributed to PDP’s 2023 electoral defeat and subsequent internal instability.
He said that, sadly, the party’s leadership “knew the truth” but chose to ignore it.
“But today, the NEC resolved that since the National Chairman of the party is zoned to the North, the PDP 2027 Presidential ticket be zoned to the South.
“They have realised the mistake they made in 2022 and are correcting it in 2025.