Peter Obi will return to the PDP as the party's presidential nominee for Southern Nigeria.

 In 2002, Obi moved to the LP after serving as Atiku Abubakar's running mate for the 2019 presidential election. Obi ran for president in 2023 as a member of the LP. He finished third, behind President Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress, APC, and Atiku of the PDP. Obi and his team had recruited young Nigerians into the Obedient Movement prior to the election, which nearly won Nigeria as a whole. 

Obi was a member of the opposition coalition that adopted the African Democratic Congress (ADC) three weeks ago; however, he has maintained that he is still a member of the LP and has refused to officially leave the party. Meanwhile, the PDP has been walloped in leadership crisis since its 2002 presidential primary election that saw Atiku emerging as its presidential flag bearer. 

The crisis was linked to the party’s failure to adhere to its zoning arrangement. Because the party's then-National Chairman was from the North, it was supposed to zone its presidential ticket to the South. However, that plan was never followed, which led to the ongoing crisis. But the Saraki-led reconciliation committee has been meeting with all aggrieved party members with the aim of uniting the party ahead of the 2027 election. 

 As the PDP agrees to zone the presidential ticket to the South, Peter Obi is likely to return to the party. However, Katchy Ononuju, Obi's former Special Adviser on Public Affairs during the 2023 presidential election, stated that the former governor of Anambra State is likely to return to the PDP due to the party's agreement to zone its 2027 presidential ticket to the South. 

Speaking with GLOBALGISTZNG, he said: “What I can tell you is very simple. What caused the crisis, as I told you earlier, was that our party’s NWC got compromised and they refused to zone and that was why we left to start the youth movement. They have reached out to us that the Bukola Saraki committee said that they should zone to the South as a way to try to bring us back and make peace. Now because Atiku knew what was going on, he dashed out and that was why I said no when I spoke to Peter Obi that whatever those people you are speaking with want, I will not support you because you must understand the foundational reason why we left the PDP was because they refused to zone. 

 Therefore, they must either agree to zone or explain to us why Southerners are not good enough to run for the presidency after eight years of Buhari, whether we talk to them within the party or outside the party as alliances. “So right now the party has agreed to zone, they made that announcement last week at the NAF Conference Centre and based on that a lot of them have been talking to Peter Obi. Peter met Babangida Aliyu over the weekend, and we require assurances. 

That is why I informed you that Kenneth Okonkwo is a member of the APC and not of us. I and Doyin Okupe had to start the youth movement, and we didn't have a candidate until we got Peter. He only met us after we started the movement because they weren't strong enough to handle the crisis. Peter and I are members of the PDP. Because they wouldn't zone, we left. 

There is nothing wrong with the party's promise to zone to the South as a means of bringing us back now that they have stated that they will do so. True, Peter Obi may return to the PDP. "So what you are hearing is true, the PDP is making a very strong move to bring us back," Katchy declared. There is nothing personal about anyone; the only thing is that if we don't fight for it now, our children will start asking questions about it, which is not a good thing. 

We want them to understand that as far as we are concerned, the presidential pendulum should swing between the North and the South. “I today was in contact with a lot of leaders of the PDP and they told me that we should cool down. When I was asking some leaders what are the guarantees that we will not have this problem, they told me that Atiku was asking if he can come back and I laughed.” 

 ‘Peter Obi’s return to PDP will collapse ADC’ The close ally of Obi disclosed that: “What I said to people was that the minute we decide on a platform, that Ruga called ADC will collapse. Yes, they are talking to us, yes, Peter has had good talks with them and anything can happen. As I said earlier, a week and month is a long time in politics. "Now that they have said they have zoned to the South, micro-zoning is the beginning of a new thing." 

"If that happens as they said, the rest will be history." Other platforms will be forced to zone to the South. ‘ADC should unite with PDP if they both zone presidency to South’ He said: “I want to assure you that the reason why we took the Labour Party platform to run was because the PDP refused to zone. I also want to reassure you that I intervened and stated that we would not work with the ADC because of their unambiguous zoning position. 

When they started prevaricating and Atiku started saying what he said, that was when I told Peter that I will go public and I will insist that if they don’t zone, I will not support you and I will tell the movement not to support you. Because of that Peter told them that the movement said they will not support him and so he insisted that they zone. Therefore, we will instruct the ADC to return and reunite with the PDP if they zone and the ADC zones. 

I will confess to you that the singular reason that Atiku formed the ADC is because the governors told them that they were going to zone to the South. If they want to go to the ADC, it will be an empty place because there is nobody there.

 “We can make peace and repair the stage that appears to have been balkanized by Buccaneers by Wike and so if we return to PDP. We can put people in positions and send people back there to do things. Party and structure are human beings, so we have a lot of time to come back and say let’s do this and that.”