PDP will come to an end if Atiku gets presidential ticket, says Bode George

Bode George, a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), says the party will collapse if former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar becomes the 2027 presidential candidate.

George, a member of the PDP board of trustees (BoT), spoke on Monday when he was featured on Politics Today, a programme on Channels Television.

“If Atiku were truly the leader of the party, he would have been fully involved in party affairs. The fact that he was the presidential candidate in the last election does not automatically make him a bona fide or permanent leader of the PDP,” he said.

“If he is pursuing his own private interest, that is entirely different from the interest of the party.

“He (Atiku) cannot be the presidential candidate of the PDP in 2027. I maintain that since the north has had the presidency for eight years, it is only fair and just for the south to have its turn for another eight years. That is the doctrine and foundation of the PDP.

“Now, I can’t say Atiku cannot contest—he has the constitutional right to do so. He can go to any other party and contest.

“But if he picks the PDP ticket in 2027, that will be the end of this party. I want to make it clear: if he (Atiku) secures the ticket (PDP) through any form of manipulation—as happened the last time, we will not accept it.

Abubakar, who was the standard-bearer of the PDP in the 2023 elections, lost the race to Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Before the PDP primary election in 2023, some stakeholders, including a group of five governors, requested that the presidential ticket be zoned to the south in line with the rotation system in the party’s constitution.

The agitation heightened because former President Muhammad Buhari, a northerner from Katsina, was completing his second term in office.

Some members of the party withdrew their support for Atiku after he won the presidential ticket.

But recent discussions about forming a coalition to challenge the APC have been gaining traction ahead of the 2027 elections.

Opposition politicians have been holding strategic meetings toward forming a coalition, with the former vice-president playing a leading role.

However, in a twist to the development on Monday, governors elected on the platform of the PDP ruled out the possibility of a merger or coalition with any other political party ahead of the 2027 elections.