•l will purchase forms for Makinde —Oyo Rep
•Party not working for Tinubu by zoning ticket to South —Pearse
ONE week after zoning its presidential ticket to the South in 2027, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is set to commence the process of further strengthening its structures across the six geopolitical zones.
The move is coming at the threshold of zonal consultations embarked on by the major stakeholders on issues pertaining to national offices, which began on August 26.
According to documents obtained by the Nigerian Tribune, the consultations are prelude designed to pave way for the sale of nomination and expression of interest forms to aspirants from Wednesday this week.
The sale of the forms is believed to be part of the items on PDP’s timetable and schedule of activities for the 2025 elective national convention coming up between November 15 and 16 in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital
A document on the events showed that the sale of the forms will be handled by the Directorate of Finance at the Wadata Plaza national secretariat of the PDP in Abuja.
But, it was not be ascertain at press time if the party has been able to resolve the issue of micro zoning of the key national offices following the ceding of the presidential ticket of PDP to the South.
Under the programme, aspirants for national offices have September 26 to return their forms to the Directorate of Organization/Mobilisation which is expected to forward the list to the Screening Committee.
The screening exercise of all contestants for national offices is scheduled for September 30, while the list of successful candidates and distribution of provisional clearance certificates to them.
In light of these, the federal lawmaker representing Ibadan North-West/Ibadan South-West federal constituency of Oyo state in the House of Representatives, Honourable Adedeji Dhikrullahi Stanley Olajide (Odidiomo), has declared that he would personally purchase the forms for Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State to contest the presidential primaries of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Olajide, a two-term PDP lawmaker, who chairs the House Committee on Digital, Information Communication Technology and Cybersecurity, according to his Special Adviser Media and Public Affairs, Tolu Mustapha, stated this while fielding questions from journalists in Abuja on the likely candidates the PDP will parade at its presidential primaries, with the zoning of the presidential ticket of the party to the south.
According to him, with the PDP zoning the presidency to the South, Makinde stands out as the poster candidate for the region.
“Governor Seyi Makinde must take a shot at the presidency in 2027. He does not have a choice. He has the education, political experience, corporate background, international exposure, mental capacity, and above all, a sterling record of performance as a two-term governor of Oyo State. He is the new face of Nigerian politics,” he said.
The lawmaker, according to his media aide, maintained that Makinde’s rising influence within the PDP and across Nigeria’s political space places him as the natural choice to lead the opposition to victory.
He added that Makinde’s governance model, which has balanced infrastructure with social welfare, has become a reference point for developmental politics in the country.
Honourable Olajide further declared that Makinde’s candidacy in 2027 would not only sustain the vision of the PDP’s founding fathers but also redefine leadership for a new generation of Nigerians yearning for competence, inclusiveness and genuine progress.
“In the entire South-West, Makinde is the major force that can face Tinubu. His political network cuts across party lines and I can assure Nigerians that many political parties will collapse their structures into one for him to send the APC out of Aso Rock,” Olajide Odidiomo stressed.
He called on the governor, as a matter of urgency, make his interest public, insisting that history beckons on Makinde as the first Nigerian governor who would seamlessly transition to the presidency on the strength of performance, vision and broad national acceptability and the first Oyo State indigene to be elected as President of the federal republic of Nigeria by 2027.
In the meantime, a chieftain of PDP in Lagos State, Dr Tokunbo Pearse, has described as mere propaganda and totally nonsensical insinuation that the party is working for the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and may have its presidential candidate withdraw from the 2027 race or not field anyone at all, following zoning of its slot to the South.
The main opposition party, at its National Executive Committee (NEC), which held recently in Abuja, ahead of its Elective National Convention slated to hold in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, in November, zoned the 2027 presidential slot to the Southern part of the country.
Pearse, who is also the Convener, Reset Lagos PDP, while speaking with our correspondent in his reaction, dismissed the insinuation, saying that it was a stupid and senseless idea and should be forgotten, querying: “Have you ever seen a situation where a presidential candidate steps down for another presidential candidate from another party, anywhere in the world, in any time of history?
“I am sorry to say, but that’s a stupid idea. It’s a senseless idea, it’s illogical, and it’s totally nonsensical. It doesn’t make sense, so forget about that.
“That is the propaganda that is being peddled by Tinubu and his people to show that there is no opposition,” he said.
Pearse said what President Tinubu and his men were afraid of was that should a Yoruba man come into the race, the president would likely be defeated, noting that Governor Makinde, was not only a younger man, but ambitious and had done fantastic work in the state.
“Makinde is a younger man, Makinde is ambitious, Makinde has done fantastic work in Oyo, what they are afraid of is and Tinubu and co know that if a Yoruba man comes into this race against him, he is likely to defeat him.
“Imagine if Obi comes into the race against Tinubu, South-West is not likely to support him. You know the prejudice in Nigeria and if South-West doesn’t support you in the South, you cannot go far.
“South-West is where Tinubu got 2.5million votes in 2023 and if the Southwesterners go against him, those 2.5m votes are gone, at least they would split it. And once they split for Tinubu in the South-West and then the support for Tinubu in the North is dwindling every day, Tinubu is finished.
“He knows that it’s only a Yoruba person, a South-West candidate that can defeat him and if Makinde gets the ticket, he would surely defeat him,” Pearse stated.
