Governors who are members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) are to meet today in Port Harcourt, Rivers State to strategise on how the party can reclaim power in 2023.
The Director General of the PDP Governors’ Forum, Cyril Maduabum, who announced this on Sunday, said the first meeting in the new year would review the state of the states, nation and the leading opposition.
He said all the PDP governors are expected to attend the meeting to be presided over by the Chairman of the Forum and Governor of Sokoto State, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal.
Maduabum said the meeting would be preceded by a gala night by the Chief Host and Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike.
He said the PDP governors were working in concert and consultations with other leaders of the party and in particular, the Dr Iyorchia Ayu-led National Working Committee (NWC) of the party to craft a credible process and programme for Nigeria’s positive rebirth.
“Dr Ayu is invited to attend the meeting to hold consultations with the governors on strategies for executing the rescue and rebuild Nigeria project,” he said.
It was learnt that the governors would also consider the choice of a presidential candidate and the zone it would come from, amidst agitations by the southern governors’ forum that the region should produce the next president after President Muhammadu Buhari.
Meanwhile, stakeholders of the Ilorin Central Constituency of the PDP have said the 2023 presidential ambition of a former Senate President, Bukola Saraki, would not affect the party’s chances of reclaiming power in Kwara State.
Some leaders and members of the party had insinuated that Saraki’s 2019 presidential ambition affected the fortunes of the PDP as it did not afford him time to coordinate the party’s activities back home.
But Alhaji Oladimeji Agaka, who read the text of a press conference on behalf of the party’s chairman in Magaji Ngeri, Alhaji Nuhu Magaji yesterday said it was deception and propaganda of the then opposition that led to the party’s defeat in 2019.