On August 25, 2025, the major opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) zoned its presidential ticket for the 2027 general election to the South. However, voices like Gbenga Olawepo-Hashim, a former presidential candidate, and his supporters have been vocal against the decision, SEYE OLUMIDE writes.
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was founded in 1998 on the principle of zoning, with its founding fathers conceiving the idea of rotating major positions – the Presidency, Vice Presidency, Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), National Chairman, President of the Senate and Speaker of the House of Representatives. However, the implementation of this decision has often been fraught with challenges.
The arrangement has remained one of the party’s best strategies to enthrone equal representation and fairness, ensuring that the entire six geo-political zones have a share in the distribution of key positions across the country.
It was based on the principle that when the presidency goes to the North, the vice presidency moves to the South. The national chairman would remain in the South while positions such as the Senate President and Speaker of the House of Representatives were evenly distributed to guarantee fair representation across the zones.
However, cracks began to appear after former President Olusegun Obasanjo left power in 2007 and was succeeded by the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, who died in 2010. His then deputy, former President Goodluck Jonathan, from the South, completed the term and later contested in 2011.
Although the North felt short-changed by Yar’Adua’s death, the challenge of zoning dominated pre-election debates in 2011 when some northern stakeholders insisted that Jonathan could not contest based on the zoning principle. Nonetheless, some major actors from the South, especially the South-West and South-East, supported Jonathan’s candidacy, arguing that it was the South-South’s only opportunity to hold the presidency.
It was in 2011 that the PDP experienced its first major zoning crisis. In the end, Jonathan contested and defeated Buhari, who then ran on the platform of the defunct Congress for Progressive Change (CPC).
The party again faced zoning troubles in 2015 when Jonathan sought re-election as an incumbent. The development forced some PDP stalwarts to defect to the then newly-formed All Progressives Congress (APC), which fielded former President Muhammadu Buhari as its flagbearer.
PDP eventually lost the presidency to the APC, which secured massive support across the North. Having learnt its lesson, the party zoned its 2019 presidential ticket to the North, with former Vice President Atiku Abubakar emerging as its candidate, alongside former governor of Anambra State, Peter Obi, as his running mate. Unfortunately for PDP, it lost again to Buhari in 2019.
By the 2023 general election, the zoning controversy returned in full force. Against expectations that the party would cede its presidential ticket to the South, Atiku again emerged as the flagbearer. The main contention was that the national chairmanship, then held by Senator Iyorchia Ayu from the North Central, should be ceded to the South.
Atiku and Ayu bluntly refused, prompting leaders like former governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike, and four other governors (G5) elected on the platform of the party to work against its interest.
Before then, Obi had already quit PDP out of frustration that the South-East, which was due to produce the presidential ticket if zoning was respected, was sidelined. He eventually ran on the platform of the Labour Party (LP). So, once again, PDP entered the polls divided, as it did in 2015, and lost to APC and its candidate, Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
Renewed Crisis Ahead Of 2027
AS 2027 approaches, the party is once again entangled in zoning controversies; with many stakeholders insisting that the South must be allowed to complete its eight-year tenure after Buhari, a northerner, spent eight years in power between 2015 and 2023. At the centre of this renewed controversy is Gbenga Olawepo-Hashim, a businessman, technocrat and politician, who has consistently warned that PDP’s inconsistent application of zoning would push the party into a major crisis.
Long before the latest dispute, Olawepo-Hashim had cautioned that PDP was toying with a delicate formula that held Nigeria’s diversity together. A veteran of pro-democracy struggles and later a presidential candidate, he consistently argued that abandoning zoning was tantamount to undermining the spirit of fairness that gave PDP its national appeal.
For him, zoning was not merely about sharing offices but about preserving trust among Nigeria’s multiple regions. He repeatedly warned that if PDP continued to oscillate on zoning, it would face rebellion, loss of credibility, and eventual irrelevance.
Despite his warnings, the PDP leadership, particularly from the North, conceded the ticket to the South, while also fixing its elective national convention for November in Ibadan, Oyo State.
While Olawepo-Hashim and his supporters do not oppose Ibadan as venue, their concern is that it may be part of an agenda to ensure the emergence of Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State as PDP’s presidential candidate in 2027.
With mounting pressure, the party recently announced that the presidential ticket would be “open,” even though it did not formally rescind its earlier zoning to the South.
Now, with PDP’s ambiguous stance that its 2027 presidential ticket would be “open” but not entirely divorced from zoning, many argue that Olawepo-Hashim’s warnings are proving prescient.
Ambiguity And Discontent
THE party’s latest decision, couched in evasive language, has satisfied no one. For southern leaders, “throwing the ticket open” is a backdoor for northern aspirants to return. For northern blocs, particularly Atiku’s camp, the ambiguity leaves the door ajar for another northern candidacy.
This double-speak has unsettled governors, former ministers and state chapters. The South-South and South-East, still nursing wounds from 2023, insist that unless PDP unequivocally zones the ticket to South, the party risks losing its last strongholds. But insiders say the leadership has not reached a unanimous position beyond what the Legal Adviser, Kamaldeen Ajibade, disclosed recently on national television.
“There can be no rigidity at this time,” a source explained. “This was the same hard posture Atiku and Ayu took in 2023, which forced Obi out and also the G5 governors to work against the party. Let presidential aspirants have equal opportunity during open primaries.”
The zoning dilemma reflects deeper struggles within the party. Meanwhile, Olawepo-Hashim continues to stress that PDP cannot out-muscle APC in the North but could consolidate in the South if it fields a southern candidate with broad appeal. Anything short of this, he insists, will leave the party fractured and unelectable.
Support From Kaduna
Now seen as a lone crusader against zoning, Olawepo-Hashim is gaining goodwill in Kaduna, Lagos, Osun and beyond. In Kaduna, the state Chairman of the PDP, Edward Percy Masha, declared that only a coalition led by PDP could unseat APC in 2027.
Masha made the assertion while receiving members of the Gbenga Olawepo-Hashim Solidarity Movement (GOH-Front), who stormed Kaduna in their thousands to press for reversal of PDP’s zoning to the South.
Addressing journalists after receiving their petition, the chairman insisted that while coalitions were welcome, only PDP had the national spread and structure to mount a serious challenge.
“Coalitions are welcome, but no party has structure across the country more than PDP. Take it or leave it, PDP is the only party that can provide that kind of structure,” he said. He argued that Nigerians were disillusioned with APC after years of economic hardship.
“Any reasonable Nigerian knows the people are not happy with this system. We were told to be patient with Buhari for eight years. Now the same people are telling us to be patient again under Tinubu. No Nigerian wants to hear APC’s name anywhere.” Masha lamented that many families could no longer feed properly or pay school fees.
“Today, how many Nigerians can feed themselves even twice daily? Look at prices in the market compared to two years ago. The economy is bad; the cost of living is high. Nigerians will not reward APC with another term,” he stressed.
He predicted that the forthcoming national convention of the party in November would mark a turning point for the PDP, attracting returnees and re-energising the party.
“When credible leaders emerge after the convention, you will see a lot of permutations. Those who left PDP will return, and even some from the ruling party will come back. Once that happens, no one will be able to stop it.”
On NEC’s decision to zone the presidential ticket to the South, Masha clarified: “That is the NEC decision and I cannot go against it. But it was also clearly stated that zoning does not preclude anybody who intends to contest. So, the field is still open for anyone with the capacity and interest.”
Earlier, State Coordinator of GOH-Front, Aliyu Mohammed (Achili), who led the delegation, argued that restricting the ticket to the South could weaken PDP’s chances against APC.
“The presidential ticket should be left open to each and every Nigerian who is a loyal member of this party and capable of contesting. That is the only way PDP will be stronger.
“We don’t have to think like the ruling party. We must look at their loopholes and take back our mandate. That is why we are appealing for a reversal,” he said.
He confirmed that their petition was received by the state chairman, who promised to transmit it to the national leadership for consideration. Observers note that Olawepo-Hashim’s message of inclusivity and renewal is resonating widely in Kaduna. During the recent Maulud celebration at Murtala Muhammad Square in Kaduna, hundreds of Olawepo-Hashim’s supporters thronged the venue, waving posters and chanting solidarity songs. They pledged their unflinching support for the Kebbi-born politician, predicting that he would emerge president in 2027 once PDP adopts him.
Call For Unity
WHEN contacted, National Vice Chairman (South-West), Kosolowoe Ajisafe, said the party leadership was on top of the issue and appealed for calm.
“The party’s leadership is on top of the issue and there is no need to push anybody out of PDP for now. I also appeal to all aggrieved members to put Nigeria and the party above personal ambition,” Ajisafe said.
He emphasised that rescuing Nigeria from APC’s misgovernance should be paramount for every meaningful Nigerian and PDP member.
