PDP crisis: Northern youths join Wike in the push for Ayu to go

PDP crisis: Northern youths join Wike in the push for Ayu to go

As pressure mounts on Iyorchia Ayu, National Chairman of the PDP to quit his position, a group of northern youths have described the former Senate President as a stumbling bloc to the party’s success in the forthcoming presidential poll.

To this end, the youths under the aegis of the Northern Nigeria Peoples Democratic Party Youth Movement have asked the embattled Chairman to throw in the towel.

Wike who is reportedly out of the country had reenforced the call for the North to relinquish the chairmanship of the PDP to the South when he addressed the press in Port Harcourt on Friday.

The youths who took their grouse to the PDP Secretariat in Kaduna at the weekend said  that for peace to return to the PDP, Ayu must resign.

Shehu Isa-Dan’Inna, leader of the  Coalition of northern youths stressed that they have been in the PDP since 1999 without defecting.

He also disclosed that as active supporters, they have no intention whatsoever to leave the main opposition party.

But they noted that it would be unfair and unjust for the North to hold unto the presidential ticket and the Chairmanship of the party at the same time.

According to the Spokesman of the youths, “PDP is not a Northern Peoples Democratic Party nor Southern Peoples Democratic Party,

“We have to be just and united, to enable us to win at various levels in the coming 2023 general elections,”

“It will be better for us to lose Ayu as the PDP Chairman and clinch the President seat, than to leave him and lose the presidency,”

Following the emergence of Atiku Abubakar as the PDP’s presidential candidate and the clamor for Ayu to go, the party has been experiencing a serious crisis.

In order to deal with what is seen as an imbalance in the party, certain PDP governors and leaders, especially those from southern Nigeria, have continued to insist that it would be insensitive for northern Nigeria to have the party’s nominee for president and the position of the national chairman.

Governor Nyesom Wike and other party leaders from southern Nigeria are leading the effort to get Mr. Ayu, who is from the North-Central, to quit.

Wike had told the press that he is not worried by threats suggesting that the PDP might move against him.

He explained that nobody is quarelling with the issue of Atiku’s emergence or his choice of a running mate, saying what is done is done.

He however wondered why it is difficult for Ayu and his backers to deal with the imbalance that the choice of a presidential candidate has introduced.

Wike said the PDP was free to take any step against him, but vowed that the voices of those who are agitating for fairness and justice will not be drowned by such threats.

The demonstration organised by Northern youths at the weekend suggest that there are growing concerns arising from Ayu’s refusal to step aside.

Udom Emmanuel, Governor of Akwa Ibom State said in a recent interview that he expected high ranking party leaders to keep to their promises.

This has been interpreted to mean that Ayu who without any compulsion promised that he would leave as chairman if a Northerner were to clinch the presidential ticket of the party should stand by his pledge.

Udom said that regardless of differences in the party, he still shares an excellent relationship with Governor Wike of Rivers State.