PDP Governors, Chiefs In Fresh War Over Zoning

A silent war over zoning has broken out in the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP as the party’s governors and chieftains project configurations to outsmart the All Progressives Congress, APC in the 2023 General Election.

In the latest development, a crack has emerged among the governors with a camp including Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State demanding the resignation of Rt. Hon. Aminu Waziri Tambuwal as chairman of the PDP Governors Forum. The demand it was gathered was based on the insistence that he cannot be chairman of the influential Governors’ Forum and be a participant in the contest for the party’s presidential ticket.

The division in the top hierarchy of the PDP according to inside sources may have broken the unity of the governors. While the governors remain united in removing the APC from the presidency, they are divided on strategy with zoning increasingly becoming an issue among some of the governors.

 GreenWhiteGreen GWG reports that Governor Wike has been especially trenchant on the need for the presidential candidate to be picked from the Southern part of the country.

The division among them was sharpened earlier in the week with the announcement by Tambuwal, chairman of the PDP Governors Forum that he would be consulting on his 2023 presidential prospects.

That announcement, it was gathered, has ruffled some feathers and reportedly including Wike who have asked him to resign as the chairman of the Governors Forum.

“You cannot be chairman of the PDP Governors Forum and be part of the process that you will be expected to arbitrate,” a source privy to the angst of the governors told  GreenWhiteGreen GWG.

A message sent to Paulinus Nsirim, the commissioner for information, Rivers State on the issue had not been replied to as at press time.

 GreenWhiteGreen GWG reports that Governor Wike was a major supporter of Tambuwal’s presidential bid in 2019 but has not shown a similar inclination ahead of 2023 with the Rivers State governor increasingly showing signs of his interest in the race.

Governor Wike had earlier this week indicated that he was the best person to lead the party to victory in 2023.

Tambuwal had on Monday announced his decision to initiate a nationwide consultation for the 2023 presidency.

His announcement was followed a day later by a terse rebuff by Wike who insisted that it was the turn of the South to produce the president of the country in 2023.

Without mentioning his onetime best friend, Tambuwal at a meeting with political stakeholders in Port-Harcourt last Tuesday, Wike had said:

“It’s not to come out to say you’re consulting. You’re consulting, yet, you’ve declared. Is it not after consultation that you declare. You’ve already declared and you say you’re consulting. What are you consulting again then.

“And people take the South for granted saying that they are not together. No problems. If we don’t know yesterday, today we know,” Governor Wike said apparently in reflection of the war over zoning among PDP chiefs and governors.

Affirming the capacity of the Rivers State political machine and nay, the South to swing the pendulum, he added:

“When we come out, we will choke them. They know it. So,  everybody should relax,  let the south do their homework and then they’ll make a proper statement.”

 GreenWhiteGreen GWG reports that the 2019 collaboration between Wike and Tambuwal to produce the latter as the PDP presidential candidate was turned in its head by the last minute intervention of retired generals who pitched camp with Atiku to clinch the ticket under Wike’s nose in Port-Harcourt.

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