In the latest development, a crack has emerged among the governors with a camp including Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State demanding the resignation of Rt. Hon. Aminu Waziri Tambuwal as chairman of the PDP Governors Forum. The demand, it was gathered, was based on the insistence that he cannot be chairman of the influential Governors’ Forum and be a participant in the contest for the party’s presidential ticket.
While the governors remain united in removing the APC from the presidency, they are divided on strategy with zoning increasingly becoming an issue among some of the governors.
The division among them was sharpened earlier in the week with the announcement by Tambuwal, chairman of the PDP Governors Forum that he would be consulting on his 2023 presidential prospects.
“You cannot be chairman of the PDP Governors Forum and be part of the process that you will be expected to arbitrate” a source quoted the governor.
The Rivers Governor has been especially trenchant on the need for the presidential candidate to be picked from the Southern part of the country.
Tambuwal had on Monday announced his decision to initiate a nationwide consultation for the 2023 presidency.
His announcement was followed a day later by a terse rebuff by Wike who insisted that it was the turn of the South to produce the president of the country in 2023.
Without mentioning his onetime best friend, Tambuwal at a meeting with political stakeholders in Port-Harcourt last Tuesday, Wike had said:
“It’s not to come out to say you’re consulting. You’re consulting, yet, you’ve declared. Is it not after consultation that you declare. You’ve already declared and you say you’re consulting. What are you consulting again then.
Affirming the capacity of the Rivers State political machine and nay, the South to swing the pendulum, he added:
“When we come out, we will choke them. They know it. So, everybody should relax, let the south do their homework and then they’ll make a proper statement.”