2019: Sheriff, Fayose mull joint PDP ticket.

Ruling party jittery, plans counter strategy.

APC orders Tinubu, Atiku to woo or cripple Sheriff, Fayose.

The major organs of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have recently been enmeshed in a battle of wits over the control of the party’s hierarchy, after the appointment of a former governor of Borno State, Senator Ali Modu Sheriff, as the party’s national chairman.
Though the players might have temporarily sheath their swords, what many did not see was the undercurrent that led to the power-play, which first appeared as a rumour, later seen as a rude joke. But now, it is gradually leaving the realm of speculation and has become an issue that is being discussed in high level political gatherings.
Even the craftiest of politicians wouldn’t have believed that the idea would fly; the new chairman of the PDP, Senator Ali Modu Sheriff and the Governor of Ekiti State, Peter Ayodele Fayose are planning a joint ticket towards the 2019 presidential election, the Saturday Telegraph has learnt.

  
The duo are not just teaming up to fight for the PDP ticket, they are battle-ready to slog it out with the ruling All Progressives Ali Modu SheriffCongress (APC) during the general election in 2019, a move that is quietly destabilising both the erstwhile ruling party and the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Insiders within the PDP confided in Saturday Telegraph that the move from Sheriff and Fayose accounts for the latest crisis in the PDP, saying that was why Fayose galvanised the PDP governors to support the emergence of Sheriff as the chairman of the party.
Even Sheriff himself did not leave anybody in doubt that this is about 2019, when, after mounting the saddle, at his maiden press conference, he told the world that he did not know when his tenure would end, and that the PDP is battle-ready for 2019, promising to return PDP to power in the next three years.
Though Sheriff was brought on board to complete the tenure of the former chairman, Adamu Muazu, who resigned after the 2015 Fayoseelection, he shocked even his closest supporters when he told the gathering that his exit would be determined by the party leaders.
One of the party’s top players in the South West, who claimed to be at a meeting where the issue was discussed, said Sher-iff believed that a combination of his own popularity in the North and Fayose’s rising profile in the South West might give the duo an edge if they team up.
According to the PDP insider, the APC might be at a crossroads because the body language of President Muhammadu Buhari is not suggestive of a definite action, noting that Sheriff’s idea is to capitalise on the inaction of Buhari to his own advantage.
Though, he believed that the new PDP helmsman might have been tainted with speculations about his alleged link with Boko Haram, he was of the opinion that the Northerners are not seeing him in that light, while noting that all that would have been quelled before 2019. “We are not sure whether Buhari will run for second term or not, but feelers from the APC suggest that they are in a dilemma, because the president is not talking to them about his future.
So, they are not sure. “If PDP wants to win in 2019, we have to start the game plan now. Sheriff has his people in the APC, he knows what is going on and he is a smart politician. Even though, people in the South don’t like him because of the Boko Haram stain, the Northerners don’t think of him like that. “In politics, you need people that are strong willed. Sheriff and Fayose are both controversial politicians, but they believe that the masses are with them.
They are sure of the South-South and South- East votes, they only need to work on the North and South West, and that is why they came up with the choice of Fayose “If Sheriff can stick with the present arrangement adopted by the APC, he has a good chance, Sheriff Fayose Fayosebecause he is very popular in the North. They will surely go with him, but Fayose would have to continue his inroad into other South West states to firm up his popularity.
However, sources close to both players are not totally denying the move, while some say it is their constitutional right to run, if they so desire, others believe that it is an idea being sponsored by some bigwigs in the APC, so as to discredit the PDP.

Saturday Telegraph.