2027: PDP INSISTS SANDY ONOR REMAINS IN PRESIDENTIAL RACE DESPITE TINUBU SUPPORT — WHO IS DECEIVING WHO?

By NaijaParrot | October 30, 2026 

Abuja, Nigeria 

 The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has insisted that its presidential candidate, Senator Sandy Ojang Onor, remains in the race for the 2027 presidential election, despite growing controversy surrounding the decision of influential figures within the party to support President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s re-election bid. The party’s position has raised fresh questions about its political direction, internal unity and the extent to which its leadership is committed to challenging the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) at the presidential level.

The controversy centres on the apparent difference between the PDP’s declared intention to contest the presidency and the activities of some of its prominent members who have openly aligned themselves with Tinubu.

Speaking during an interview on TVC News, George Turner, the PDP chairman in Bayelsa State, maintained that Senator Onor had not withdrawn from the presidential contest. Turner explained that the party’s participation in the Rainbow Coalition should not be interpreted as an abandonment of its presidential ambition. 

 According to him, the coalition is a cross-party political arrangement that allows participating parties to retain their individual candidates while agreeing to support selected candidates at different levels of the elections. 

 He disclosed that President Tinubu had been adopted as the coalition’s preferred candidate for the presidency, adding that participating parties, including the PDP, could still maintain their own candidates. 

 The situation has become more complicated because of the public position of Nyesom Wike, the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory and a prominent PDP figure, who has declared support for Tinubu’s second-term ambition. 

 Wike’s political alignment with the President has continued to generate debate over the relationship between his personal political decisions and the official position of the PDP. The party, however, has maintained that Wike’s support for Tinubu does not automatically amount to an institutional decision by the PDP to abandon its own presidential candidate. 

 Its spokesperson, Jungudo Haruna Mohammed, has also said the party intends to constitute its own Presidential Campaign Council and proceed with preparations for the election. 

 For many observers, the central question is no longer simply whether the PDP has a presidential candidate. It is whether the party can convincingly explain its political strategy to Nigerians while prominent figures associated with it are campaigning for the incumbent President. 

 If the PDP intends to challenge Tinubu in 2027, Nigerians will reasonably expect to see a clear campaign structure, consistent messaging and an unmistakable commitment from its leadership. On the other hand, the party’s explanation is that participation in a broader political coalition does not necessarily mean surrendering its individual electoral identity. 

 The distinction between a party’s official position and the political decisions of individual members is important. However, the PDP will need to communicate that distinction clearly to avoid further confusion among its supporters and the electorate. 

 With political alignments continuing to evolve, the PDP faces the task of demonstrating how its presidential candidate will operate within the broader Rainbow Coalition arrangement while Tinubu remains the coalition’s preferred presidential choice. 

 Whether the arrangement represents a tactical political understanding or a source of deeper division within the PDP remains a matter for the party’s actions and subsequent official decisions to clarify. For now, the party says Senator Sandy Onor is still in the race. 

The bigger test will be whether its structures and influential members act in a manner consistent with that declaration. 

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