After the Supreme Court's final resolution of the appeal arising from the judgment of the Presidential Election Petitions Court (PEPC), the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is expected to set off the process of selecting its new national chairman. Abuja Bureau Chief, LEON USIGBE, writes on the push to install former Senate president, Bukola Saraki, as the new party boss.

Former Senate president, Bukola Saraki, has recently swept to the forefront of conversations around the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Pundits are now projecting him to be the next national chairman of the main opposition party when it conducts a mini national convention soon to replace Iyorchia Ayu, ousted as the party boss by the courts earlier on.

The former Kwara State governor has not formally declared his intention to become the new helmsman of the party, but indications are that he is priming himself or being primed by other stakeholders for the job.

“Saraki has a great capacity to utilise this party. Saraki has more capacity than all these political leaders that we have produced in the past. It is true, it is a discussion that is on the radar,” Ibrahim Abdulahi, a member of the PDP National Working Committee (NWC) confirmed to the Midweek Politics.

Having governed the country for 16 years, the PDP has been playing a secondary role to the All Progressives Congress (APC) for about nine years, pulverised by crises that culminated in the loss of the 2023 presidential election even though it was thought to be its best chance to regain power. Judging by the final vote tally, its flag bearer, Atiku Abubakar, lost the votes that would have taken him over the line to Peter Obi, his running mate in the 2019 exercise. Observers are sure with hindsight that if they had stayed together in the PDP and there was no running mate crisis that birthed the G5, the 2023 election would have been a walkover for the PDP, but it was Bola Tinubu who broke through the party's schisms to emerge the winner.

The former ruling party is still seething from throwing away that chance and now hopes that the Supreme Court might favourably consider Atiku's challenge of the declaration of the APC flag bearer as the winner and restore it to power. The apex court should give its verdict on that soon, which is what the party is waiting for before it goes all out to select its new national chairman.

But in the meantime, Saraki appears to have been doing the rounds, becoming a bit more visible than usual at a time of political lull. Party members have been visiting his private residence to mount pressure on him to present himself as the only one with the wand and the will power to keep the PDP afloat or see it go under completely during the Tinubu presidency. He is from the North Central zone just as Ayu, meaning that he fits the party's prescription of who should succeed the Benue State-born former national chairman if he were to throw his hat into the ring.

Those who are rooting for him look at his antecedents; his perceived firm control of the respect and loyalty of his colleagues while as governor of Kwara, he was the chairman of the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF) and as president of the Senate. They say he is well respected by all the tendencies in the PDP and, more importantly, by the two major blocs of Atiku and his loyalists, as well as former governor Nyesom Wike and his camp. He was the director general of the Atiku presidential campaign and has a warm relationship with Wike despite the former River State governor's enmity with Atiku. Therefore, in a battle to control the power lever of the PDP, he provides the bridge. The cordiality in their relationship was demonstrated in full recently when Wike hosted him to a meal in his residence in Abuja.

This is not to say that he will not have resistance within the party. There are those who do not like him and will try to frustrate any move to install him. But political watchers say if Saraki is in the good books of both Atiku and Wike, whatever is left will not be more than a little obstacle to surmount if he seeks the office of the PDP national chairman.

This is why, according to Abdulahi. “If you are talking about capacity, resources, proficiency, efficiency, pedigree and even suitability, Saraki is about the best to replace Ayu from the same north central, whatever anybody will say. And Saraki is known to be a winner. He has won elections in the past. He is a maverick, he has the strategy, I cannot think of anybody better than Saraki in the circumstance, in the present-day PDP that we have found ourselves. Nobody can do it better than him.

“Whatever consideration you bring up, you will find more than enough weaknesses on that consideration. So, Saraki can do a better job. He has been faithful, he has been tenacious, and he has been committed since joining the PDP 2003 and becoming governor of Kwara State. Since then, there is nobody that can do it better if we just want to win. If political party democracy is about winning, then you need somebody who can inspire some measure of confidence yet again unlike all these hopeless hooligans we have been producing, particularly the last one. They are traders; they are all looking for what to eat.”

But where does his leadership leave his perpetual desire to become president? Will other potential presidential hopefuls see him as getting a head start if allowed to clinch the plumb job? Some of these questions are expected to crop up in the run up to the national chairman selection.

However, if Saraki gets the job and is similarly interested in the next presidential race, chances are that he will manipulate the party leadership to ensure that he becomes the standard bearer and create more worries. But if he is the one that is to come for the post, no members are normally able to stand in the way of what the party hierarchy desires.