The The 2023 presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi, has been linked with speculations on his likely return to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
The speculation comes amid efforts by the former Senate President Bukola Saraki-led reconciliation committee to settle all aggrieved members of the PDP, which may likely yield its biggest result with the return of Obi to the party.
Obi, who was the running mate to former PDP presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar in 2019, decamped to the LP in 2022.
While in LP, Obi contested for the presidency in 2023 and came third behind Atiku of the PDP and the eventual winner, Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC). Prior to the election, Obi and his team had harnessed Nigerian youths into the Obidient Movement which almost blanked the entire Nigeria.
Three weeks ago, Obi was part of the opposition coalition that adopted the African Democratic Congress (ADC), but he has refused to officially decamp from the LP, affirming that he was still a member of the party.
Meanwhile, the PDP has been in leadership crisis since its 2023 presidential primary election that saw Atiku emerged as its presidential flag bearer. The crisis was linked to the party’s failure to adhere to its zoning arrangement. The party was meant to zone its presidential ticket to the South because its then National Chairman hailed from the North but that arrangement was never followed, a situation that led to the protracted crisis.
However, the Saraki-led reconciliation committee has been meeting with all aggrieved party members with the aim of uniting the party ahead of the 2027 election.
Obi’s former Special Adviser on Public Affairs during the 2023 presidential election, Katchy Ononuju, said the former Anambra State governor is likely to return to the PDP because the party has agreed to zone its 2027 presidential ticket to the South.
“What I can tell you is very simple. What caused the crisis, as I told you earlier, was that our party’s NWC got compromised and they refused to zone and that was why we left to start the youth movement. They have reached out to us that the Bukola Saraki committee said that they should zone to the South as a way to try to bring us back and make peace. Now because Atiku knew what was going on, he dashed out and that was why I said no when I spoke to Peter Obi that whatever those people you are speaking with want, I will not support you because you must understand the foundational reason why we left the PDP was because they refused to zone. So whether we talk to them inside the party or we talk outside the party as alliances, they must agree to zone or explain to us why after eight years of Buhari, Southerners are not good enough to run for the Presidency.
“So right now the party has agreed to zone, they made that announcement last week at the NAF Conference Centre and based on that a lot of them have been talking to Peter Obi. Over the weekend, Peter went to see Babangida Aliyu and what we want are assurances.
“That is why I told you that someone like Kenneth Okonkwo is not part of us, he is a member of the APC. He only met us after we have started the movement, they are not strong enough to take on the crisis – we who are members of the PDP – me and Peter – who, out of them refusing to zone, we left, I and Doyin Okupe had to start the youth movement and we didn’t have candidate until we got Peter. Now that the party said they will do the same thing that they did in 2019, which is zone to the South as a way to bring us back, there is nothing wrong with that,” he said.
Katchy added that, “what you are hearing is true, the PDP is making a very strong move to bring us back. There is nothing that is personal against anybody, it was simply if we don’t fight for it now, our children will start wondering about and it’s not good that we leave this kind of fight for our children. We want them to understand that as far as we are concerned, the presidential pendulum should swing between the North and the South.
“I today was in contact with a lot of leaders of the PDP and they told me that we should cool down. When I was asking some leaders what are the guarantees that we will not have this problem, they told me that Atiku was asking if he can come back and I laughed.”
Would Peter Obi’s return to PDP collapse ADC?
Katchy stated, “What I said to people was that the minute we decide on a platform, that Ruga called ADC will collapse. Yes, they are talking to us, yes, Peter has had good talks with them and anything can happen. As I said earlier, a week and month is a long time in politics.
“Now that they said they have zoned to the South, micro-zoning is the beginning of a new thing and that will force other platforms to zone to the South and if that happens as they said, the rest will be history.”
Asked if ADC should unite with PDP if they both zone presidency to South.
He said, “I want to assure you that the reason why we took the Labour Party platform to run was because the PDP refused to zone. I also want to assure you that I intervened and said that we will not do anything with the ADC because they were not equivocal about zoning. When they started prevaricating and Atiku started saying what he said, that was when I told Peter that I will go public and I will insist that if they don’t zone, I will not support you and I will tell the movement not to support you. Because of that Peter told them that the movement said they will not support him and so he insisted that they zone.
“And so, if they zone and the ADC zone, then we will tell the ADC to come back and reunite with the PDP. I will confess to you that the singular reason that Atiku formed the ADC is because the governors told them that they were going to zone to the South. If they want to go to the ADC, it will be an empty place because there is nobody there.
“If we get back to PDP, we can make peace and repair the stage that seems to have been balkanized by Buccaneers by Wike and so. We can send people back there to do things and we put people in position. Party and structure are human beings, so we have a lot of time to come back and say let’s do this and that.”
