Tinubu meets PDP G-5 Govs to finalise deal on 2023 presidency

The five aggrieved governors elected on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), known as G-5 or the Integrity Group, are set to meet with the presidential candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu, to finalise the deal on the 2023 presidency.

The aggrieved governors, Nyesom Wike (Rivers), Seyi Makinde (Oyo), Samuel Ortom (Benue), Okezie Ikpeazu (Abia), and Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi (Enugu), have since fallen out with the presidential candidate of the PDP, Atiku Abubakar, ahead of the 2023 general election.

The governors, who have been calling for the resignation of the PDP National Chairman, Sen. Iyorchia Ayu, as a condition for them to campaign for the former Vice President, insisted that it is unfair for the main opposition party to have the national chairman and presidential candidate from the northern region of the country.

The leader of the group, Governor Wike, who lost the PDP presidential primaries to Atiku in May, recently said he would announce his preferred presidential candidate in January 2023, adding that he will also campaign for his adopted candidate across the country.

Reports emerged recently that Wike alongside his allies departed Nigeria for London, the United Kingdom to meet on their preferred presidential candidate for the 2023 presidency.

However, a reliable source close to Tinubu said the APC presidential flag-bearer would meet with the aggrieved PDP governors in one of the European countries this week.

The source, who refused to give the exact date of the meeting, said the governors would make their preferred presidential candidate known to Nigerians after the meeting.

“The support by G5 for Tinubu is going to be a game changer, akin to the declaration of the G6 for the APC in 2014.

“We are meeting with the group this week in Europe to firm up the arrangement. They are first-class nationalists who believe in the Nigeria project and we shall work together for the good of the nation,” Daily Trust quoted the source as saying.

Atiku had recently said he met with Governor Wike in Nigeria four times and one time in London, the United Kingdom to resolve the crisis rocking the PDP.

While fielding a question on the reason the crisis has not been resolved, the former Vice President said: “It is not on my part. It is on the other side; I am waiting for him.”

The Star

Segun Ojo