Party sets up committee to choose consensus presidential candidate

The Board of Trustees (BoT) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has set up a 12-member committee with the intention to pick a consensus candidate for the partys presidential ticket to contest in the 2019 presidential election.

According to a report by ThisDay, the committee will sit down with the party's horde of aspirants and attempt to persuade them to allow the party choose a consensus candidate instead of going through the process of a primary election.

The board chairman, Senator Walid Jibrin, said, "A committee has been set up to discuss with all the aspirants to come up with one of them as a consensus candidate. We have 13 of them in the race.

"We have also advised the leadership of the party to regulate the processes and draw a code of conduct to guide the conduct and behaviour of the aspirants and officials to be engaged in the selection process.

"Consequently, the BoT has forwarded its full recommendations to the National Working Committee (NWC) of the PDP for consideration."

The PDP's long list of aspirants includes Senate President, Bukola Saraki; former vice president, Atiku Abubakar; Sokoto State governor, Aminu Tambuwal; Gombe State Governor, Ibrahim Dankwambo; and former governors including Sule Lamido, Ahmed Makarfi, Attahiru Bafarawa, Jonah Jang and Rabiu Kwankwaso.

Others are former Senate President, David Mark, former Senator, Baba Datti Ahmed, and former Minister Special Duties Duties and Inter-governmental Affairs, Tanimu Turaki.

Senator Jibrin stated that the aspirants will not be forced to concede and abandon their ambition, but will be "persuaded to put the interest of the party above their personal interests and ambitions".

Jibrin noted that the opposition party is wary that the result of a primary election among all the aspirants could lead to disagreements that can cause major divisions in the party ahead of next year's election.