As the battle to replace the embattled chairman of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, shifts to the arena of party leaders, indications have emerged that the wife of the president, Dame Patience Jonathan, has a preferred candidate for the job: the current minister of transport, Idris Umar from Gombe State.

The first lady’s choice of Umar has however been criticised by some leaders of the PDP who are of the view that she was part of the trouble in the PDP.

Again, there is yet another challenge that is now threatening the unity of the PDP, and it is the influence of the president’s wife who again insists on Senator Idris Umar, the transport minister, to be made chairman.

Frontline contenders, according to THISDAY, include Senator Abubakar Mahdi, who is from Borno State and the leader of the faction of the Peoples Democratic Movement (PDM) that elected to remain with the PDP. He is also an ally of former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar.

Mahdi, according to the source, has the backing of the Chairman of the PDP Board of Trustees, Chief Tony Anenih.

Should Mahdi emerge the PDP chairman, this could checkmate Atiku, who was believed to have supported the registration of the breakaway faction of PDM as a political party by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Another contender, it was learnt, is Mallam Adamu Maina Waziri from Yobe State.

Waziri was respectively the former Minister of Agriculture and later Police Affairs under the Yar’Adua and Joanthan administrations.

He was also the party’s governorship candidate in Yobe in the 2003 and 2007 elections. He is related to the former Minister of Finance and PDP party chieftain, Adamu Ciroma.

Also in contention is Senator Abba Aji, who was the only senator elected on the platform of the PDP in Borno State in 2007.

Aji has also held the post of Special Adviser to the President on National Assembly Matters and before his foray into politics was once the Managing Director of the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF).

The question is… WHO BECOMES THE NEXT PDP CHAIRMAN?  WILL THIS END THE CRISIS IN THE PARTY?