…Atiku looking beyond PDP to actualise ambition?
By Orkula Shaagee
The main opposition party in Nigeria, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has denied plans for mergers and coalitions ahead of the 2027 general elections, but said it will welcome any party, persons, or groups willing to join with a view to return the party to power in 2027.
The PDP, through its Governors’ Forum, announced this yesterday after a six- hour meeting in Ibadan. The governors flatly stated that the party is not prepared to join any coalition or merger but that its doors are open to those who wished to join.
Chairman of the Forum and Bauchi State Governor, Bala Mohammed, who read the meeting’s communique, said that the forum “resolved that the PDP will not join any coalition or merger. However, as a major opposition party, it welcomes any party, persons, or groups willing to join it with a view to wrestling power and enthroning good leadership in 2027.”
On the recent Supreme Court judgment on the national secretary position, the Forum recommended that the deputy national secretary should act in that position pending the nomination and ratification of a substantive Secretary from the South East geopolitical zone.
The Forum expressed concern over rising insecurity, particularly in Borno, Katsina, Edo, and Plateau States of Nigeria, and called for a review and reorganisation of the nation’s security architecture with a bottom-up approach that empowers sub-national governments to play a more active role in safeguarding their territories.
The opposition governors declared solidarity with suspended Rivers State Governor, Siminalayi Fubara, amid the current political crisis in the state which led to the declaration of a state of emergency there.
They announced plans to hold a national meeting on May 27, 2025, where a Zoning Committee would be constituted ahead of the party’s national convention scheduled for August 28 to 30, 2025, in Kano.
They listed members of the Zoning and National Convention Committees, with Governor Douye Diri of Bayelsa State as Chairman of the Zoning Committee, and Governor Ahmadu Fintiri of Adamawa State heading the National Convention Committee.
Meanwhile , a chieftain of the PDP, Navy Commodore Bode George, Rtd, has said that the PDP’s next presidential candidate should come from the south and not the north.
He declared that PDP’s front runner, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, cannot be the opposition party’s presidential candidate in 2027.
In an interview on Politics Today, a programme on Channels Television, yesterday, George, a member of the party’s Board of Trustees, said it is against the PDP’s internal zoning policy for a northern presidential candidate to emerge from the party in 2027.
“Atiku can’t be the PDP presidential candidate in 2027. Our internal zoning policy makes it compulsory to be eight years for the South and North. If Atiku emerges as the PDP candidate in 2027 by any means, the party will collapse,” he stated.
His remarks come as the PDP Governors’ Forum yesterday rejected the planned opposition coalition ahead of the 2027 election.
Atiku was PDP’s presidential candidate in the 2023 election, which was won by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
In the past week, however, Atiku, Peter Obi, and the former governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai, have mooted plans at a new political coalition aimed at unseating Tinubu in 2027.
Atiku’s open support for the burgeoning coalition is said to signal that he may be already looking beyond the PDP to actualize his ambition for the 2027 presidency.
Sources close to him are reportedly confident that he will contest the 2027 presidency, even though they are not opening up yet on what platform he will emerge from.
“Waziri(Atiku is the Wazirin Adamawa) will contest the 2027 presidential elections, just wait and see,” our source said.