North picks Iyorchia Ayu as PDP consensus National Chairman

* North Central smells a rat

The North Caucus of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has finally endorsed a former Senate President, Dr Iyorchia Ayu as its National Chairman.

The North Caucus is made up of party leaders from the North Central, Northeast and the Northwest geopolitical zones.

The new chairman-in-waiting will be presented for approval at the next National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting in the days ahead.

Ayu’s emergence as the choice of the North is, however, not without hitches. On Wednesday, a meeting convened for his adoption failed because some political calculations could not sail through.

The meeting was postponed to allow the five governors from the North reach out to more people that had not been fully convinced.

Shortly after that meeting was postponed, the five governors met again to re-strategise and get grey areas sorted. The meeting facilitated a more serious engagement with some Northern PDP leaders perceived to be nursing misgivings about the Ayu chairmanship.

In some quarters in the North, particularly the North Central, Ayu’s chairmanship was believed to be a plot to prevent the zone from producing the President in 2023. But the governors had a tough time persuading other stakeholders, especially those in the camp of former Senate President, Bukola Saraki, to accept Ayu’s candidacy.

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