It is no news that the well-orchestrated concession of the presidential slot to Alhaji Atiku Abubakar of the PDP at their primaries without regard to the party’s enshrined policy of zoning and rotation in electable and appointive offices in the party has put a spanner in the works of a once vibrant and cohesive party.

The bone of contention is, who and where the next presidential candidates of parties come from, leading to the forthcoming general elections. This contention became fierce even before the party primaries of the two dominant parties, PDP and APC. In fact, it assumed bitter and frightening storm across the country. It was a   whirlpool of some sort. The controversy took the form of tribal, ethnic, regional and religious colouration. While the southern political block laid claim to the presidential ticket, rightly so, as the north in truth, has had its fair share, having served almost two straight four-year term at ASO ROCK, the north countered that demand of the south as infringing on their constitutional right to contest the presidency.

This stand point, though constitutionally tenable, is seen by the southerners as self-seeking, greedy and clearly a move that runs on the head of natural justice. This stand by the northern block in the PDP may not be unconnected with the power of the presidency, and its utility value in dispensing the overwhelming advantages. This is true, as politics play a major role in the acquisition of economic and financial wealth in the region as opposed to the south where commerce and industry play a major role in the economy of the region, with politics as a complementary part of the whole gamut for socio-economic and material well-being of her citizens.

But this should not be so in a sane and civil society where equity and justice and balance should be the yardsticks for electable and appointive offices for good governance in a pluralistic society, such as Nigeria.

The All Progressives Congress (APC) at its party primaries gave hope to Nigerians in the direction of equity and justice and inclusivity in the choice of the presidential candidate, having voted for a southerner, though a Muslim, from the Yoruba stock. Even before the applause for the pretended choice died down, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu opted for a northern Muslim pair as vice presidential candidate.

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For the APC, the rumblings are still on, particularly from southern elements and the large Christian following on what they describe as controversially divisive politics at play in these choices.

For the PDP, the roof is almost being pulled off the umbrella house as a southern group led by Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State is bent on seeing that justice prevails in the allocation, elective and appointive offices in the party.

The group, comprising Wike as the chieftain, together with his governor counterparts, namely, Seyi Makinde (Oyo), Samuel Ortom (Benue), and Okezie Ikpeazu (Abia) and lately Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu State are in a battle of wits for the control of the party, leading to the general elections in February 2023.

Series of consultations in and out of the country have gone on and still going on, yet both sides of the divide appear not to shift grounds. All the public is fed with are speculations that lead the party and her followers to nowhere near victory at the hotly contested general elections, whose campaigns are in swing.

Only last Monday October 17, Wike’s group on yet another series of consultations in faraway Spain came back to Nigeria to see to the end of the battle of do-or-die for party leadership and supremacy. In the same breath, a new group within the PDP comprising four governors have threatened to withdraw their support for Atiku if he gives into Wike’s demands. They are governors Godwin Obaseki (Edo), Ahmadu Fintiri (Adamawa), Douye Diri (Bayelsa) and Darius Ishaku (Taraba). They are reported to be backed by several notable members of the party in the evolving stand-off, reported The Nation newspaper of Sunday, October 16.

In fact, reports say, Obaseki’s group has threatened to dump Atiku’s campaign train should Wike and his group be allowed to have their way on Ayu’s exit. Their stand, sources disclosed, is strongly supported by prominent members of PDP, BoT and National Working Committee of the party. The group has, in an unmistaken terms, stated that the PDP should not allow Wike to hold the party to ransom, even as the G.5 of Wike have continued to insist that it is unfair for the party to have the national chairman and presidential candidate from the northern extraction ahead of the 2023 polls.

So, where do all these lead the PDP in the electoral process and chances for victory at the polls? What are the chances of a house divided against itself clinching victory, especially the presidential slot in the general elections in view?

In all of these, Atiku, the presidential flag bearer is undecided in acting swiftly to douse the on-going flames in the party. He is bewildered and shocked at his own calculated attempt to shoot himself on the foot by encouraging the jettisoning of rotation and zoning as enshrined in the party’s constitution.

For the records, the founding fathers of the PDP, in their wisdom, introduced rotation and zoning as a means of cementing political inclusivity and strengthening the bonds of unity in the party and by extension, the Nigerian nation state. The PDP in good faith had introduced the concept of rotation and zoning into Nigerian politics to promote national unity, peace, sacrifice, and to giving a sense of belonging to members in the affairs of the party.

Section 7(2)(c) of the umbrella party’s constitution states thus: “…In pursuance of the principle of equity, justice and fairness, the  party shall adhere to the policy of ‘rotation and zoning’ of party and public elective offices”.

Why then has the PDP decided to jettison this clause in their constitution? Or has that section been amended?

Discerning minds believe that this castration of the constitutional provisions of the party with regard to rotation and zoning is responsible for the wobbling structures of the PDP. To think that the party can go into the elections with such faulty steps on a path loaded with explosives leaves much to be desired. Is it that, whom the gods want to destroy, they first make mad or hard of hearing, to do what is right?

The PDP as a party should not deceive itself that all is well in their present dislocation and aggressive opposition to shifting grounds to secure a peaceful and enduring solution to the challenges before the party by the contending parties. The truth is that the party cannot stand the other well prepared and organized parties at the polls with a weak and wobbling foundation, further being fractured daily.

And guess what? What played out in 2015 when the then President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan was abandoned by some of his credible and powerful supporters, leading to the presidential election is playing out now. How history repeats itself! Atiku and his team should therefore think deep and make a sharp U-turn to restore its party to its honour and dignity and to its respect for constitutional provisions in birthing a virile and inclusive party that can compete favourably with other political parties in the elections ahead.

• Ekiye writes from Yenagoa, Bayelsa State.