SEVENTEEN days to the presidential primaries of the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, there are indications that the race for the ticket is gravitating towards a three-horse race. This, it was learned during the weekend is as a result of an ongoing consultation and horse-trading among leading stakeholders and power brokers in the party.
All appears set for the presidential primary billed for Eagles Square on May 28 and 29 following the sale of forms and screening of aspirants.
After paying N41million for the expression of interest and nomination forms, each of the 17 aspirants were screened, 15 were cleared and two were disqualified.
…Emerging front runners
At the moment, Atiku, Saraki and Wike appear to be the top three contenders in terms of their reach, acceptance, name recognition, exhaustive campaign and influence among delegates sampled.
However, feelers from the PDP hierarchy point to the direction of the party picking its Presidential standard bearer from the North because of political expediency and the desire to win.
It was gathered from multiple sources that party leaders are almost unanimous in their view that it was probably payback time for the APC, which galvanized a ground swell of northern opposition against the then incumbent Southern PDP President Goodluck Jonathan, to gain advantage.
Those pushing this line of argument note that the ruling APC is currently faced with a dilemma having been unable to arm-twist the PDP to zoning the presidency to the South where it enjoys a comparative advantage over the opposition party, is now equally toying with the idea of throwing the contest for its presidential ticket open to aspirants from al the six geo-political zones.
Should the argument in favour of a northern candidate scale through in the PDP, it will certainly have an adverse effect on the chances of promising southern candidates such as Obi, Anyim, Wike, Udom, Ohunabunwa, and Momodu among others.
