It may be a case of frying pan to fire in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), which has known no peace, since denying the Nigerian South of the presidential ticket of the party for next year’s presidential election, during its primaries in May this year.
Tribune, is reporting that the party has split down the middle along North-South divide, even ahead of the National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting scheduled for Thursday this week, to review the state of its affairs.
The report fingers Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, who lost out to former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar in the primaries, and has remained implacable, especially after denied the position of the running mate, in favour of Ifeanyi Okowa, Delta State Governor, as now leading the Southern bloc.
Wike, who was said to have bested Okowa as the choice of a committee raised by Atiku, to help in the choice of his running mate, had held a meeting with the former VP, last week, which reportedly ended in a stalemate as none of them seemed willing to budge from their individual positions.
At the NEC meeting, the party is also scheduled to examine the state of the nation, while addressing the calls in some quarters for its national chairman, Dr Iyorchia Ayu, to step down to allow the realignment of the national leadership of the party along its constitutionally prescribed zoning principle.
Following the announcement of Okowa as Atiku’s running mate, Wike and his group, which has several PDP governors as members, have since refused to work with the former vice president, demanding that Wike should first be placated over the perceived humiliation he suffered in the process.
The two groups, last week, however, agreed to raise a committee with equal number of individuals nominated from both sides to resolve the differences between Atiku and Wike, with a view to making recommendations.
Though it is not a NEC committee, Nigerian Tribune gathered that it will be interested in examining the report as parts of the overall move to proffer the way forward.
Top party source confided in the Nigerian Tribune that the besetting problem has gone beyond Wike as the southerners suspect there is a northern agenda being implemented in the party.
They cited the key leadership positions of the party, including the presidential candidate, the national chairman and the chairman of the Board of Trustees (BoT), all being occupied by the North and the reluctance to re-adjust the leadership structure.