The Nigeria Democratic Congress, NDC, has thrown the 2027 race wide open by zoning
its presidential ticket to the South for a single four-year term, a move that instantly puts Peter Obi and other southern aspirants in play.

The decision came at the party’s national convention on Saturday after a motion by Rep. Afam Victor Ogene of Anambra’s Ogbaru constituency. Delegates adopted it without dissent.

Under the arrangement, the South gets the ticket for 2027 only. Once that four-year term ends, the ticket automatically shifts back to the North.

The zoning formula settles months of backroom jostling inside the NDC over where the party should field its standard-bearer. By locking the North into a wait-and-hold position, the convention has effectively cleared the runway for southern heavyweights to move.

For Obi, the former Anambra governor who ran in 2023, the resolution removes the biggest structural hurdle to picking up the NDC’s form. Other southern aspirants now have the same green light to purchase and process nomination forms.

Party leaders framed the deal as a balance between regional equity and political strategy ahead of 2027. Critics inside the party will watch whether the “automatic” handoff to the North holds once the race gets hot.

For now, the South has its window. The question is who walks through it first.

The Senate has amended its Standing Orders, limiting eligibility to contest for its presiding officers and principal officers to only members of the 10th Senate.

In the new rules, a senator shall only qualify to contest for Senate Presidency and Deputy Senate Presidency if he/she has won election to the Senate for at least one term of four years.

To be eligible to contest for any principal office, a senator must have won election for two consecutive periods, the last one must immediately precede the inauguration of the next Senate.

By implication, any senator who plans to vie to become a presiding officer in the 11th Senate (2027-20231) must have been a senator for at least one term preceding the inauguration.

For principal offices (chief whip, deputy whip, minority whip, etc), the senator must have been a member of the current 10th Senate, or they are not eligible to contest.

Under the new provision on “qualification of presiding officers”, it is stated in Order 3,”A Senator vying for the Office of the President of the Senate and the Deputy President of the Senate must have served at least one term of four (4) years in the Senate as a senator of the Federal Republic.”

Similarly, nomination for the positions shall strictly follow ranking in the following order: former president of the Senate; former deputy president of the Senate; former principal officers of the Senate; senators who had served for at least one term of four (4) years; and senators who had been members of the House of Representatives.

According to the provision, it is only the absence of the above that a first-term senator can be nominated to contest for the positions of presiding officers.

Under Order 5, a senator seeking to be a principal officer must have “served as a senator for at least two consecutive terms immediately preceding such nomination. “

The Senate passed the rules after a lengthy executive session presided over by the President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, on Tuesday.

The new rules impliedly gives Akpabio, other former presiding officers, principal officers and ranked senators the right of first refusal.

Findings indicated that the new rules might be what some sources described as “self-serving” or designed to serve the interest of the present presiding officers and members of the 10th Senate.

For instance, some State governors contesting the 2027 election to the Senate in the hope of vying for the presidency of the Senate, are effectively barred by the new rules.

It was also learnt that even within the Senate, the new rules will stop some senators from vying to become principal officers as they would not have attained two consecutive terms prior to 2027.

The National Publicity Secretary of African Democratic Congress (ADC), Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, has claimed that the party favoured Peter Obi more than any other aspirant while with them.

Abdullahi said this while faulting Obi’s claim that internal wrangling was part of the reason he defected to the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC).

Featuring on Arise Television’s Prime Time, Abdullahi said Obi and Kwankwaso’s defection means a lot because they are significant politicians.

He said: “I will be lying to say that their defection didn’t mean anything because these are two significant frontline politicians in this country and when you lose those two politicians then you will fill that you have lost something.

“But it’s not a mortal blow because what we are trying to do is to build a broad based coalition that would include everyone.

“The reason we are building this coalition is because our individual parties have been destabilized and the only way out was to come together.

“There was a consensus among us that the direction this country is going was quite precarious and the only way we can win election and rescue the country from the misrule of the APC is to build a party that is formidable enough.

“Obi and Kwankwaso have a different political idea of what the party should be doing.

“Obi said himself that once we present two candidates against President Tinubu, we have given him a chance. I wonder what has changed.

“So if the legal challenges are the reason that we have left after creating the impression that ADC is drowning in these mountains of legal challenges, the answer is no.

“At the moment, we have only three cases which are flimsy without trying to be prejudicial, as the National Publicity Secretary of ADC.

“I can tell you that none of the aspirants and leaders have been favoured like Peter Obi.”