The Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister, Nyesom Wike, has been described as vindicated following the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) National Executive Committee’s (NEC) decision to zone its 2027 presidential ticket to the South while retaining the party’s National Chairman in the North.

Reacting to the development, the Minister’s Senior Special Assistant on Public Communications and Social Media, Lere Olayinka, said the move confirmed the position taken by Wike and the G-5 governors in 2022.

“Now that the party has realised its mistake of not listening to Wike and the G-5 in 2022, and has chosen to do what they said three years after, have they not been vindicated now?” Olayinka queried.

He recalled that Wike and the G-5 had insisted that the presidential candidate and the national chairman of the PDP must not come from the same zone. According to him, since Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, a Northerner, emerged as the party’s presidential candidate in 2022, Senator Iyorchia Ayu, also from the North, ought to have resigned as national chairman to allow a Southerner occupy the position.

However, Olayinka said Ayu’s refusal to step down, backed by Atiku and his camp, contributed to the party’s defeat in the 2023 general elections and the instability that followed.

“But today, the NEC resolved that since the National Chairman of the party is zoned to the North, the PDP 2027 presidential ticket be zoned to the South. Has PDP not come back to eat its own vomit?” he asked.

According to him, Wike had maintained that zoning the chairmanship to the South was key to securing the presidency, but the party ignored the advice and paid the price at the polls.

“They have realised the mistake they made in 2022 and are correcting it in 2025. But is it not too late already, bearing in mind that the only way the zoning can be justified is for the South to conclude its eight years, while the presidency returns to the North in 2031?” Olayinka added.