It would be a grand deceit for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), to dream of winning in the South East, South West, South South and North Central parts of the country, in next year’s presidential election, former Governor of Ekiti Stat, Ayo Fayose has warned.
Fayose, who was one of the aspirants for at the party’s presidential primaries in May this year, where former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, picked the ticket, is therefore proposing that the party must increase the intensity of work in this direction, including reconciling with aggrieved part chieftains, particularly the group of five governors, led by Nyesom Wike of Rivers State.
The group known as G-5, had emerged in the wake of Atiku, not only winning the primaries but picking Ifeanyi Okowa, Governor of Delta State as the running mate over Wike, said to be the choice of a committee set up by the PDP high command.
Wike, leading Governors Samuel Ortom of Benue, Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia, Seyi Makinde of Oyo, and Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu, is insisting that the group would only accede to supporting Atiku, with the ouster of Iyorchia Ayu as the irreducible minimum.
Against this backdrop, Fayose, who spoke as a guest on Politics Today, a current affairs programme of Channels Television, whle also warning that the entrance of Peter Obi, the candidate of Labour Party (LP) into the race would greatly hurt the party, said the party, must attune itself to the reality on ground.
Hear him: “Let me give you an analysis. In the South-West, people might not like to hear this; but I don’t see how PDP will win. Anybody deceiving us can continue to deceive us.
“I don’t see how PDP will win in the South-East. South-south will be a combination of all interests. Let me come to the key states of the north. Without deceiving ourselves, there is so much work to do in the North Central.
“PDP and APC did not pick any candidate, either presidential or vice-presidential, from the North Central. The North East is where the vice-presidential candidate of APC comes from.
“We will give Adamawa state to our party. Don’t forget there is still another Kwankwaso who is a semi-cancer that can equally upstage figures in the north. Reconciling or negotiating with Obi will be a good thing and finding a way to make peace with these Wike people will be a good thing too.”
