New Telegraph

How 2023 Presidency, National Convention are tearing S’West PDP apart

…the intrigues, politicking between 2 major blocs

 

 

The brewing crises in the ranks of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the South-West may soon reach a boiling point, Sunday Telegraph has learnt. With six chapters of the party in the South-West zone, the party only controls one state, Oyo State, with Governor Seyi Makinde as its lone man standing.

 

The other chapters of the party in the zone include Ogun, Lagos, Ekiti, Ondo and Osun. Currently, a crisis of trust is gnawing among leaders of the PDP in the zone over the contrasting positions of the party’s lone governor, Makinde, and some leaders in the zone, including the immediate past zonal executive of the party led by Dr. Eddy Olafeso.

 

Aside the Olafeso group, the Oyo governor is also having a rough patch with the immediate past governor of Ekiti State, Ayodele Fayose, who recently issued a stern warning to Makinde to stay off affairs in his state.

 

Sunday Telegraph learnt that both Makinde and Fayose are currently at variance on issues bordering on zonal executives of the party, Ekiti PDP Caretaker Committee, and forthcoming Ondo PDP governorship primaries, the 2021 National Convention, among others.

 

Speaking recently, Fayose insisted that the Oyo State governor has no right to interfere in the local politics being played in each South- West state, despite being a zonal leader of the party.

 

There has been a cold war amongst some major players over who makes the executive committee of the zone. Governor Makinde has demanded that the zonal executive be sacked and a caretaker one be fostered in the zone which the party did.

 

“Beyond that, the fact that there is a sitting governor does not say I should go to another man’s state. Nobody should come to my state; if you come to my state, I will face you squarely,” Fayose said recently ostensibly directed at the Oyo State governor.

 

While it is believed that Makinde has a tailored interest towards Fayose’s former deputy, Senator Abiodun Olujimi, who is having a running battle with her former boss for the control of the party in Ekiti State, Fayose is said to be supporting the return of Olafeso as zonal chair to ensure he takes control of the state structure ahead of the 2022 governorship election.

 

A former ex-officio of the party in the zone told Sunday Telegraph under a condition of anonymity that the crisis is beyond the South-West, adding that external factors and individuals within the party are involved.

 

“The battle is around the 2023 presidency and our National Convention in December 2021. The incumbent National Chairman, Prince Uche Secondus, wants a second term but quite a number of interests are opposed to him because they see him more as an Atiku (Abubakar) person.

 

“The National Convention will determine so many things, that is why whoever controls the zonal executive in the South-West will have the bragging rights of delegates from six states and you should know what that number can do in both the National Working Committee and presidential aspirants’ election.”

 

Secondus was elected alongside other members of the National Working Committee (NWC) at the party’s National Convention held in December, 2017, in Abuja. His tenure of four years would elapse in December 2021, when another National Convention would be held to elect a new NWC.

 

“The permutations are long and dicey,” the PDP chieftain said. “Do you know that there are discussions on how to revert the seeming injustice done to the South-West at the 2017 National Convention by allowing the South-West to take over from Secondus?

 

“Since the PDP presidential ticket is almost certain for the North, the South can only fight for the vice president ticket and National Chairman. The issue is now how it will be shared accordingly.

 

“All the permutations are towards the 2023 presidential ticket, but we hope there will still be a party before then because factions are even coming out. The zone needs leadership but ambition is killing many things. I think the elders like Bode George and others should rise up and save this party in the South-West,” he said.

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