On Tuesday, August 30, 2022, High Chief Raymond Dokpesi, a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), explained why the party is involved in the issue that is currently facing it.
Dokpesi charged that Goodluck Jonathan, the previous president, had abandoned the power rotation system in place, which was the cause of the party’s current turmoil.
The High Chief claimed that in 2015, he counselled former President Jonathan to resign so that a candidate from the North could finish the eight-year term that had been started by the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, but Jonathan chose not to follow his advice.
After welcoming back Senator Ibrahim Shekarau, the two-term governor, to the party, he said this in an interview with newsmen in Kano.
He claims that in 2015, when President Goodluck Jonathan was considering running for office, he was personally written to and asked to “either go on vacation after completing YarAdua’s tenure or join the incoming government, so that he could come back and complete his full eight years.”
“But he was told otherwise and he followed that, which is what caused the difficulties we are currently experiencing and also permitted the North to keep producing the President until 2027.
“I have been a member of the PDP from inception, I read and I know every stage of the party activities. Out of the 16 years the PDP rule, the North served only two years, that was why I opposed Jonathan in 2015 when he was running for elections, I told him he should allow the North complete their eight years then he will have his full eight years after resting for a while.
“So it is not true that it is the turn of the South in PDP, what Jonathan did was what brought about the crises which some people are pushing up.
“The truth of the matter is that some of the social media handlers are worried that it is not possible for the North to have the Chairman of the Party, Presidential Candidate and Board of Trustees Chairman and maybe the Campaign DG also from the North.
“Now it is because we are not situating issues at their proper perspective, the truth of the matter is that the PDP has a constitution and it has said that people are elected and rotated on eight years basis.
“So in 2019 that was when the PDP started its rotations, From that year up to 2027, the North is supposed to still present the President under PDP, so there is nothing wrong in Atiku Abubakar’s candidacy and we are not in 2027 yet we are still in 2023.
“We lost the 2015 elections because we didn’t adhere to the rotational Presidency and since then what has changed? nothing,” Dokpesi noted.
