Former Minister of Information and founding member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Prof. Jerry Gana, has declared that Peter Obi would easily defeat any northern presidential candidate in 2027 if he returns to the PDP.
Gana made this assertion during an appearance on Arise TV’s Prime Time on Wednesday, while reacting to speculations surrounding Obi’s possible return to the party. Obi, who ran for president under the Labour Party in 2023, had left the PDP in May 2022 to pursue his ambition.
“The PDP is on the ground. I’m a researcher, and I research opinions. In the northern states, Peter Obi under the PDP will defeat any candidate because our people are very fair-minded and just,” Gana said.
He revealed that conversations were ongoing to lure Obi back into the PDP ahead of the next general elections.
“We are reaching out to Peter Obi. Because I’m leading a search team and there are many brilliant people, Peter may be good, but we have somebody better. So, we are searching,” he stated.
Reflecting on the events leading up to the 2023 election, Gana acknowledged that the PDP made a strategic error in how it handled Obi’s exit.
“We made a mistake in 2023. If I were Atiku, I would say, ‘Peter, it is now your turn; I would give you a vice-president,’ but he didn’t,” he said.
Addressing the internal rifts within the party, Gana insisted that the crises are limited to the elite circle in Abuja and do not represent the sentiment of the PDP’s core supporters across the country.
“I must confess that many people have forgotten that the PDP was created as a grassroots organization. In 1998, we were formed and then moving to the elections in 1999 we were in every polling unit, because we are the ones who really won the first election.
“Many people have forgotten the PDP won most of the local governments, when it came to the presidential elections, we won the presidency, we won the Senate, we won the House.
“We were totally in control, and that is why we were very delighted that we restored democracy to Nigeria and re-established civil rule. Because for a number of years there was military rule but we successfully terminated that in a very democratic way, so the PDP was really as it were, a grassroots party. That’s why when we said ‘power to the people,’ we meant it because that was what it was, and it has been like that. So when this recent problem happened, it was really among a few elites here in Abuja. It didn’t even go beyond.”
