PDP National Chairmanship: Plot to Edge out South West thickens

As the struggle for the position of the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, thickens, the SouthWest Geo-political zone is likely to loose out in the end, if different personal interests of key players continue to divide and override the collective group interest of members from the zone.

Prominent among the interests, is the ambition of a Governor in the Southwest who wants to become the Vice-Presidential candidate of the PDP in 2019.
To this end the odds seem to be favouring the duo of Uche Secondus and Raymond Dokpesi who are also from the Southern part of the country where the chairmanship position was zoned to.
Ahead of the December 9 Elective National Convention of the PDP in Abuja, the latest in the series of plots, is the plan to use the guber candidate of the PDP in the 2015 elections in Lagos State, Jimi Agbaje and a former Provost of the Federal College of Education (Special) and former Minister for Youth and Sports, Professor Taoheed Adedoja to thwart the efforts of the SouthWest to the exalted office.
Agbaje and Adedoja, according to reliable sources, are being lured with huge sums of money to contest for the office of the Deputy National Chairman (South) at the proposed Convention.
Sources close to some of the Governors behind the plot, said the intent is to further divide the South west and pave way for Uche Secondus.
Secondus is the preferred candidate of the Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike who is seen as a major financier of the party.
The urge to ensure the SW does not get the chairmanship slot is also supported clandestinely by an aspirant who plans to become the governor in one of the states in the zone, for fear of not getting the gubernatorial ticket from his kinsmen.
It would be recalled that the Senator representing, Ogun East senatorial districts at the upper chamber of the National Assembly, Senator Buruji Kashamu at a time had routed for the chairmanship slot to be given to the North.
But in a twist of strategy, he is today sponsoring one of the aspirants in the person of professor Tunde Adeniran as he is not relenting in his bid to ensure the former Education Minister clinched the position as a way to continue to have control on the PDP.
This, according, to information, has spurred the two factions of Governor Ibikunle Amosun and Senator Olamilekan Adeola, both of the All Progressives Congress, APC in Ogun State, to garner support for the Buruji Kashamu faction of the PDP, to ensure Professor Adeniran becomes the PDP national Chairman.
However, in light of the deal to use Agbaje and Adedoja to divide the interests of the Southwest, Professor Adeniran’s financier might also have to lick his wounds.