2023 Presidency: PDP Set To Follow “Mood Of The Country” In Choosing Candidate

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is reportedly set to avoid a potential banana skin situation by following the ‘mood of the country’ in deciding its candidate for the 2023 presidential election.

Amidst calls for the 2023 presidency to be zoned to the south and the attendant rejection by northern politicians interested in the position, the party is said to be on the lookout for how the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) will choose its own candidate before committing to the next step.

A source who spoke on the matter said the move is to avoid any crisis and also at the same time present an acceptable candidate to Nigerians.

The source claims the PDP intends to wait until the APC candidate emerges, gauge the reaction of Nigerians before eventually deciding on either to zone its own ticket or throw it open.

The PDP also intends to use the strategy to neutralize whichever option the APC adopts even as both parties continue to evaluate aspirants against the controversial issue of zoning the 2023 presidency.

“The contest will be left open to avoid a crisis. By the time the APC announces its presidential candidate officially, the PDP will declare its candidate officially. It is a strategy to leave the contest open.

“Leaving it open was done in two ways. First, if the APC declares it is going South, the PDP will look at the mood of the country and see if it favours Nigerians. If it does not favour them and the North disagrees with the APC, we (PDP) will go North,” the source who is a former member of the PDP National Working Committee (NWC) was quoted by Vanguard to have said.

Asked if the waiting game will not backfire against the PDP at the end of the day, the source said it’s a very safe and effective strategy.

According to the source, it is only the APC that has the challenge of potentially having its candidate restricted to a particular region as the North has only ruled for 2 years during PDP’s reign.

“The strategy will not backfire because nothing says we (PDP) should not pick a candidate from the North and the reason is that the APC is different from the PDP. We won’t work at their pace.

“In the 16 years that the PDP ruled Nigeria, the North only ruled for two years, so nothing will backfire. It is only the APC that has a problem because they must not pick a candidate from the North. We (PDP) can pick a candidate from the North. If we pick a candidate from the North, it will pay us because there is nobody from the North that will not like to be in power.

“If they (APC) pick a candidate from the South-West, it will backfire. We are looking for power and when the PDP gets power, we will organize ourselves,” the source claimed.