Former vice chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Olabode George, declared yesterday that the party was in serious trouble in view of the zoning dilemma it is facing and how young politicians in the party are handling the matter.
Contrary to this view, however, Ekiti State Governor, Ayo Fayose said elders of the party must now take the back seat and added that Nigerians are tired of old politicians.
George, who spoke on his party’s PDP zoning dilemma on a Channels Television programme, Sunday Politics, noted that the party has a culture and rules that guides it in zoning the top six key positions in the party to the six geo-political zones in the country.
He lamented that the young elements in the party, who he alleged bent the rules to suit their own purposes, cannot send them out of the party. “You can’t send the landlord out of his house,” George reiterated.
But, Fayose said old politicians were the ones who killed during the 2015 general elections and that they have to take back seat now so that young politicians can take the party to the promised land in 2019.
“The cause of the trouble in the party is the zoning of the Presidency position to the North and chairmanship position of the party to the North, which Bode said was against the justice and equity formula that the party has used for 16 years,” said Fayose.
The Ekiti governor insisted “this is a new era, the party has to embark on new journey, using new method and fresh politicians.
“Nigerians are tired of following old faces who have been in politics for over 40 years; there is nothing they will say that Nigerians will listen to. We are tired of them.”