Opinion

2023: PDP Must Win The North To Remain A National Party

2023: PDP Must Win The North To Remain A National Party - Chidoka

A former Minister of Aviation, Osita Chidoka says the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) must try to reclaim lost states in the north without losing its stronghold in the south if it will remain a national party beyond 2023.

The party chieftain observed that over the years, the PDP has gradually lost some vital states which is threatening the dominance of the party but that should be corrected in 2023.

Speaking on Tuesday during an interview on Channels Television Sunrise Daily, Chidoka stated that the PDP must win back the northern states.

To this end, he submitted that the strategy the PDP is pursuing in 2023 is to recover the north without losing the south, thus emerging as a truly national party again.

He said: “The challenge is understanding the future of the party. PDP is going through a serious metamorphosis. In 1999, PDP was a national party made up of the north and the south-east and the south-south.

“In 2003, that changed, PDP became a south-west, south-east, south-south, middle belt and some northern states party. By 2011, the country had divided into two, and PDP had become a southern party more or less, losing all the northern states in the presidential election.

“By 2015, we had lost including the middle belt, and the PDP was relegated almost to the south-east and the south-south.

“What we have now in the PDP is what I called a northern strategy. Restoring PDP as a national platform that cuts across its base in the south-east and south-south and cuts across the north.

“Without us winning back the north into the PDP as a party, we will not be able to remain a viable national platform.

“What is at stake today is the mechanism of doing that. That ability to win back the north into the fold of the PDP must not be at the expense of losing our base. So, it is that conversation that is going on within the PDP. I believe we will find a middle ground in that.”

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