What Atiku’s Candidacy Portends For The PDP & APC Ahead Of 2023

The emergence of Atiku Abubakar as candidate of the people’s democratic party ahead of 2023 general election has no doubt altered some political calculations and permutations among the two leading political parties in the country.

Before now, there has been a serious clamour and agitation for Southern region to produce the next president of Nigeria after the tenure of president Muhammadu Buhari in 2023.

But the decision of PDP to throw the ticket open and allow all aspirants to vie for the ticket at the primary, completely dampened all hopes of any southern aspirant to emerge as the party flagbear.

After the withdrawal of Dr Peter Obi from the race, all eyes were on Nyesom Wike of Rivers State to make things happen because of his reach, financial stamina and wide consultation across the country. 

But he was cut down to sizes at the last minutes into the contest following the decision of Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto state to step down and instruct all his supporters and delegates to throw their weights behind Atiku Abubakar.

At the end, the former vice president emerged as the candidate, making it his sixth attempt to contest for the Nigerian president.

With this development, it is becoming clearer that PDP is gradually sliding into a regional political party with key positions being held by the Northerners.

The party national chairman, Iyocha Ayu is from the North. BOT Chairman, Walid Jubril is from the North and now Atiku Abubakar who is the presidential candidate is also from the North.This development really portends a serious danger for the party.

As a result of this, if the ruling party could get things right with the choice of their candidate, it will be a great opportunity for them to retain power in 2023 and rule the country for another eight years.

This will be the penalty for jettisoning the zoning arrangement in the PDP constitution.

In the same vein, if the ruling party goes ahead to pick its presidential candidate from the north like PDP, whoever emerges as president in 2023 will have a lot of agitation for secession and regional grievances to contend with, for the next four years of his tenure.