Olusegun Olanrewaju
Crisis-ridden Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is once again in the news, with rebranding and reconciliation on the cards.

Yesterday the governors in the ranks of G5 met in Lagos, insisting that they are open to reconciliation.

The five state governors, Nyesom Wike (Rivers), Seyi Makinde (Oyo), Samuel Ortom (Benue), Okezie Ikpeazu (Abia), and Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi (Enugu), grouped in the centre of excellence at the weekend on strategies to move the leading opposition party in the country forward.

*Hold an enlarged strategic meeting in Lagos
The meeting point of the governors was the residence of the party’s former deputy national chairman, Bode George, who eventually announced the rebranding of the tendency as ‘Integrity Group’.

Those present at the meeting included former governors, Ayo Fayose (Ekiti); Donald Duke (Cross River), and Jonah Jang (Plateau).

Deputy Chairman of PDP, Taofeek Arapaja; another national leader, Dan Orbih, as well as senators Olaka Nwogu, Mao Ohuabunwa, and Nasif Suleiman, among others, were also present.

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At the end of the meeting, Jang briefed journalists, saying the group is still open to consultations in resolving the perennial crisis-rocking party.
Jang said, “We at this meeting have decided to stand on the decisions we took at our last Port Harcourt meeting. We hereby again reiterate that the window for reconciliation in our great party, the PDP remains open.”

Also speaking, Makinde said the G5 governors were the face of their struggle and were being backed by the leaders and elders of the party present at the meeting.

“The G5 is all about the Integrity Group. You can see us, five serving governors, as the face of this struggle, but the leaders and elders of the party that you see here are the people behind those faces,” Makinde said.

“We are this morning in the South-West to review the situation within our party, to review where we are, and to also look at what is going to happen in the coming elections,” he added.

The Oyo governor also pledged to brief Nigerians on the update at the end of their deliberations.
This is coming two months after the group met in Port Harcourt, where it vowed not to be part of the presidential campaign of the party’s flag bearer in the 2023 election, Atiku Abubakar.

The G5 has called for the removal of the party’s national chairman, Iyorchia Ayu, citing regional balance in the party’s structure.

However, Ayu has insisted that he won’t step down till the end of his four-year tenure, even as the G5 made his resignation a precondition to support Atiku’s 2023 presidential ambition.

While Wike and his allies have not been seen campaigning for Atiku, it is not clear whether they will support Tinubu or Labour Party (LP)’s presidential candidate, Peter Obi, in the contest for the nation’s topmost job.

Atiku also open for negotiation
– Ologbondiyan

Meanwhile, one of the spokespersons of the Atiku-Okowa Campaign, Kola Ologbondiyan, has said Atiku is on the same page with the Integrity Group of the PDP who have maintained that the door remains open for negotiation with the Party’s presidential candidate.

Speaking on Channels Television Sunday Politics, the former PDP spokesperson said that following the meeting of the Integrity Group where they reiterated that their door remains open for negotiation, Atiku reaffirmed to him that he too is open for negotiation.

“When I read in the social media at the end of the meeting of the governors that they have opened the window of reconciliation, what came to my mind was that few days ago when the candidate of the party Atiku Abubakar met with the Guild of Editors in Lagos, he was very emphatic about his readiness for reconciliation.

“And even today after this meeting when I had opportunity to hold a discussion with him he was still very emphatic about the fact that the disposition of the governors as well as the members of this group tallies with his own position which is that, let us reconcile and pull together, not just in our own interest but collective interest of ordinary Nigerians who have been going through pains, anguish and sufferings under the leadership of the All Progressives Congress,” Ologbondiyan said.