Founding National Secretary of Alliance for Democracy, (AD) prolific author and political analyst, Prof. Udenta O Udenta, says the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) which had been battling for survival since it lost power in 2015 is out of the woods and in good stead to cause an offset in 2027 if it fields a strong candidate.
Prof. Udenta, who believed the zoning of the PDP’s presidential ticket to the south would be a “game changer”, noted that the decision is ruffling feathers in other major parties and has set the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, in panic mode.
The university don dismissed the notion in some quarters that it is too late in the day for the party to put it acts together ahead of the 2027 election, stating that there is enough time for the party “to groom itself, retool its infrastructure, ready its ranks, and go for it”.
Prof. Udenta, who was guest on Arise News Prime Time programme on Friday night monitored by Newsmata.com.ng, predicted that no northern candidate would get 25% of the votes in the south in 2027 because the south would bind together to retain the presidency in the zone for another four years.
On the furore over PDP’s zoning arrangement, he said “for me, PDP’s strategic zoning to the South will be a game changer for the simple reason that the president is from the south. If you have a candidate from the north, there is no chance in hell, and I want a debate on this matter, a northerner can defeat a president of a southern extraction in this kind of environment now.
“Already we are hearing from the APC and the presidency, anybody coming from the south is splitting our vote, unity of the South. That is mythology, all right, but the signal is that the south is going to bind together to take that which they believe is their own until 2031.
“So, no northerner will garner, I repeat, 25% of the vote in the south. It will be difficult. That means 17 states are gone already. And then you have the Middle Belt to contend with. If you have a southern candidate; there’s Seyi Makinde, already a governor. There’s Peter Obi, a member of the party before. (Goodluck) Jonathan, the former president under the party’s platform, knocking; personally, the party knocking on their doors”.
He believed that candidates like the trio are “capable and competent and efficient, and they can do the job better than the current president”.
According to him, with the party resolving its legal issues and the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, monitoring its three consecutive meetings, “the party has actually come out of the woods”, but stressed that “still a lot of work needs to be done by members of the party to navigate it to the convention in November”.
Dismissing the statement by Lere Olayinka, spokesperson to the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike that the PDP acted too late to get it right, Professor Udenta said it has ample time because the next election is 2027.
“This President, his presidency, his party, his government, panicked. That’s why they jumped the gun, abandoned governance, started doing rallies across the country, including inside the Villa, being endorsed all over the place, stimulating defections, not in an organic manner, because if you don’t have something to work on in terms of programmes and policies, you do politics; if not, what we are discussing now should be discussed a year later.
“The presidential primaries will be in July, August next year. That’s a year from now. The PDP convention is going to be in November, maybe APC will do in December.
“Another one in December, January. We still have six brimming months to get it right. These candidates will emerge in 10, 11 months. It is enough time for the party to groom itself, retool its infrastructure, ready its ranks, and go for it. So, if you do it now, it is better not to do it now to do it in the next one year.
“But if you do it now, you have enough time for people to absorb the pill. That is why, if you find the two entities that are rioting with this decision, it is the presidency and the APC and the ADC”.
He cited a recent front-page story in The Nation newspaper in which former President Jonathan reportedly said he would not run “because it will break the ranks of southern unity”, as proof of panic in the presidency.
“Because if he comes in and picks the party’s ticket, the presidency is tossed; the party is tossed, we know it. if Obi comes in, it’s even tossed. Therefore, it is important they share the space in the South and say let there be emptiness there outside the president; let them face this avalanche coming from the north.
“That’s not going to happen. The north is going to settle this matter because PDP is going to have a southern candidate; strong, willing, ready to rule”, he posited.
Prof. Udenta similarly disagreed with the argument that zoning compromises the quality of candidates.
“Zoning does not contradict efficiency and depth and breadth of experience. No, the idea is that if it is zoned to the geography of your area, you look for the best. You don’t look for the guy or the woman who will not do it. You look for the best and the best is available”.
He advised that “We have to rally the nation together by this strategic arrangement to have the party zone the presidency to the South”.