ABUJA, Nigeria (Chatnewstv.com) — A senior member of Nigeria’s Peoples Democratic Party has criticized the party’s decision to zone its 2027 presidential ticket to the South, warning it could amount to an endorsement of President Bola Tinubu’s reelection bid.
Gbenga Olawepo-Hashim, a former presidential candidate, said Monday that the PDP National Executive Committee’s zoning decision was a serious mistake despite being reached democratically.
“I’m not saying that they didn’t do it by majority. They did it by a majority. It was quite democratic. All the organs of the party decided. But it made a big error,” he said on Channels Television’s Politics Today.
Olawepo-Hashim called the decision “unprecedented” in the PDP’s history. “Zoning the presidency to the South is a default campaign for the return of President Bola Tinubu,” he said. “Because those who are mounting this campaign of zoning to the South are the same people who are saying, ‘We are in PDP, but we work for President Tinubu.’”
He argued that the move weakens the party’s ability to field a strong candidate and could trigger a constitutional dispute. “The constitution of Nigeria does not allow you to discriminate against a party member when it comes to an elective position on account of where he comes from,” he said.
Citing past primaries, he noted that the PDP had never barred any region from contesting the presidency. “In 1999, President Olusegun Obasanjo contested against Alhaji Rimi from the North and Alex Ekwueme from the South East,” he said. “In 2003, as a sitting president, Obasanjo had to contest again with Barnabas Gemade from Benue and Rimi from Kano. The party never shut the door against any zone.”
