On Sunday, a former presidential aspirant of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) platform called on the party’s leadership to select a Southern candidate as the party’s next Presidential Candidate if former Senate President Bukola Saraki becomes the party’s National Chairman.
In a statement, Anakwenze described Saraki as “eminently qualified” to lead the PDP at this critical time and reconcile all aggrieved party members and groups. However, he cautioned that the party must not repeat the mistakes of the past leadership crisis, which nearly destroyed the party.
He said that, in order to restore the trust of aggrieved members and the general public in the PDP, and to hasten the process of reconciliation, the next Presidential Candidate should be from the South, in order to ensure balance.
The root of the current crisis in the PDP, according to Anakwenze, is the “gross impunity” displayed by the party’s sacked leadership. He said that the party had stuck to its “bad position” of selecting both the National Chairperson and Presidential candidate from the North while pretending that the Southern part of the country didn’t exist.
He added that this had driven away people who were feeling aggrieved and didn’t feel like they had a place in the party, which was exemplified by the “gods” of the G-5 southern governors, led by Wike and now led by Tinubu in the APC government.
He said that now was the time to make the PDP a “true national party” and that the next national chairman should be from the South. Anakwenze added that he was ready to back Saraki for the position of National Chairman of the party.
