The leadership crisis tearing the
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) apart is now being linked to the failure
of the party to field a Northerner as its presidential flag bearer in
the 2015 elections.
The Arewa Youth Consultative Forum
(AYC), factional leader of the PDP, Senator Ahmed Makarfi, former
national chairman, Dr. Mohammed Haliru and several other party
chieftains believe the story would have been different today for the
PDP if it had given its ticket to a Northerner in that election.
Dr. Goodluck Jonathan from the
Southsouth who completed the first term of the late President Umaru
Yar’Adua and went on to win re-election in 2011 was the party’s
candidate in 2015 but lost to President Muhammadu Buhari, a northerner.
The party has not known peace since then
with Makarfi and former Borno State governor Ali Modu Sheriff locked in
a fierce battle for the chairmanship.
Reviewing the situation in an interview
yesterday, Makarfi was confident that the party would have won the 2015
presidential election had it fielded a northern candidate.
Makarfi opined that the ‘gang up’
against the PDP in the North would not have arisen if the party had
presented a northern candidate.
He said, the party also became too
comfortable that it no longer communicated well with the people to know
what they wanted, which he said made it easier for propaganda to be used
against it.
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