'Don't leave us,' PDP leaders beg ex-President Jonathan

When acting National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Yemi Akinwonmi, led a delegation to Goodluck Jonathan's Abuja residence, appealing to the ex-President not to dump the political party, was atop the agenda.

Some sections of the press have speculated that the governing All Progressives Congress (APC) intends to hand its 2023 presidential ticket to Jonathan, who hails from Nigeria's southern region.

Among those who joined Akinwonmi to see Jonathan on Tuesday were Daisi Akintan, former caretaker secretary of the PDP in the Southwest and the secretary of ex-officio forum; and a member of the National Executive Committee, Helen Taiwo.

Elder Yemi Akinwonmi emerges as acting national chairman of the PDP (TheCable) Pulse Nigeria

The PDP has been embroiled in crises lately; and its de facto National Chairman, Prince Uche Secondus, has been sacked, re-appointed to his position, and sacked again by courts of coordinate jurisdiction.

Exactly what the party doesn't need as it prepares for a make or break convention.

Rumours have also made the rounds that Jonathan, who governed Nigeria from 2010 to 2015 from the platform of the PDP, is mulling the idea of jumping ship and pitching tent with the governing APC.

"We don't want him to leave and so we asked him to give us more time to sort out the conflict in the party. We also asked him to continue to play a role in the party as we brace up to unseat the APC in 2023," one chieftain of the PDP who was in the room, tells Pulse on condition of anonymity.

Earlier in the year, ex-Senate President Bukola Saraki, who has put together a PDP reconciliation committee, also led a delegation to plead with Jonathan not to leave the political party.