PDP National Convention: New Power Brokers Emerge in Opposition Party

• Governor Nyesom Wike seems to have again emerged as the major power broker in the ongoing national convention of the PDP
• The Rivers state governor is said to have had a say in the consensus candidate for the party's national chairmanship position
• Governor Wike is also said to have produced the party's national secretary who is Senator Sam Anyanwu from Imo state

FCT, Abuja - A report by The Nation newspaper indicates that the ongoing Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has thrown up new power brokers in the party.

According to the report, the constitution of the incoming National Working Committee (NWC) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) will be a test of strength by governors and elders of the party.

The report noted that governors and elders of the party are locked in a battle of wits to put their loyalists in the new NWC.

Read also

2023: Security, economy restructuring will be my focus, says Tambuwal

Horse-trading in the last few days shows that old forces in the party are losing ground to new ones.

The emerging power brokers are governors, especially Nyesom Wike (Rivers), Samuel Ortom (Benue), Seyi Makinde (Oyo), Bala Mohammed (Bauchi), Ahmadu Fintiri (Adamawa), Ifeanyi Uguwanyi (Enugu), and Ifeanyi Okowa (Delta).

Some of the old forces still pulling some weight are a former president of the Senate, Dr. Bukola Saraki, Governor Aminu Waziri Tambuwal of Sokoto state, and a former minister of police affairs, Adamu Maina Waziri.

Investigation revealed that all the key actors have been trying to outwit each other in their battle for the soul of PDP.

While the Wike-Ortom/governors alliance is producing the new national chairman of PDP, Iyorchia Ayu, the deal with the governors led to the ceding of the office of the national secretary to Wike.

Read also

Things fall apart: Mass defection looms in Kaduna as Shekarau consults associates

It was learnt that to the discomfiture of all the stakeholders in the southeast, Wike has succeeded in anointing Senator Samuel Anyanwu as the national secretary of PDP.

A well-placed party source said:

“In the power-sharing arrangement, all the PDP governors have been accommodated in one way or the other under the consensus option which was adopted by them.

“They also agreed that where some aspirants have chosen to defy consensus to contest, all the governors will direct their delegates to vote for the mutually agreed ones.

“So far, the pact by the governors has led to Wike, Ortom, Fintiri, Okowa, Bala, Saraki, Tambuwal Makinde, Ugwuanyi, Ikpeazu leading the new generation of power brokers in PDP.

“It was a smart and strategic move by Saraki which made his camp to secure the post of national legal adviser, which is the soul of the party.”

Southwest Stakeholders In Last-minute Move To Ensure Consensus Candidate

Read also

List of Nigerian governors who have unveiled their anointed successors

Legit.ng had earlier reported that stakeholders of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) from the southwest zone have concluded negotiations on candidates to adopt as consensus options.

A consultative meeting held in Lagos on Wednesday, October 27 by the stakeholders concluded on former Osun state governor, Olagunsoye Oyinlola as the deputy national chairman (south), and Debo Ologunagba as the national publicity secretary of the party.

Sources privy to the meeting say the move is a last-ditch effort by the southwest PDP chieftains to secure a united front in the national convention to elect national officers.

PDP Ready to Rescue Nigeria, Says Governor Ifeanyi Okowa

Meanwhile, the chairman of the accreditation sub-committee of the PDP national convention, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa, on Friday, October 29, said the planning and outcome of the exercise would prove that the party was ready to rescue Nigeria from prevailing challenges.

Read also

Kano APC crisis: Tinubu's campaign DG, Jibrin makes u-turn after threatening to leave party

Okowa, who is the governor of Delta state, made this known in his remarks at a meeting of the committee held at the party's national secretariat in Abuja.

He said that PDP was ready to take over leadership at the centre in 2023, emphasizing that the convention would strengthen unity and democracy not only in the party but in the country.

Source: Legit.ng