The Peoples Democratic Party faction loyal to Nyesom Wike, Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, on Tuesday declared relatively unknown Senator Sandy Onor its consensus presidential candidate for the 2027 general election.
Former Benue State Governor Samuel Ortom, who chaired the primary collation committee, announced the outcome at Wadata Plaza in Abuja, saying Onor emerged after consultations and voice votes across all 36 states and the FCT. He was the sole aspirant.
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The announcement adds another layer to the deepening crisis of a party that once governed Nigeria for 16 consecutive years.
The Man Himself
Onor is a 60-year-old politician and professor of History from Ikom, Cross River State. He holds a degree from the University of Calabar and has built a career that straddles academia and politics across three decades.
He entered public office in 1999 as Executive Chairman of Etung Local Government Council and later served as Commissioner for Agriculture and then Environment under the Cross River State government.
In 2019, he won election to the Senate, representing Cross River Central Senatorial District in the 9th Assembly, where he served as Vice Chairman of the Committee on TETFUND and Tertiary Institutions.
In 2023, Onor was the PDP’s governorship candidate in Cross River State. He lost to the APC’s Bassey Otu, contested the result in court, and was unsuccessful. He remains a senior figure in Wike’s political network.
The Wike Question
The more immediate question surrounding Onor’s candidacy is not whether he can win, but what the candidacy is actually for.
Wike, whose faction produced Onor’s ticket, has publicly and repeatedly declared his support for President Tinubu’s re-election.
In March, he told journalists: “As it is today, my party seems not to have learned, and I am also going to support the President for a second term.” He described himself as “an asset to making sure that Tinubu wins his second term.”
Onor is aware of this tension and has addressed it directly. He has argued that Wike is entitled to his personal political choices and that the party is bigger than any individual.
“Barrister Nyesom Wike is indisputably a leader of the party, but he is not the party,” he said. He has also defended Wike’s support for Tinubu as a matter of integrity, given his role as a serving minister.
Critics have openly questioned whether a candidate produced by Wike’s machinery, while Wike campaigns for the incumbent, amounts to a serious opposition effort or something else entirely. One commentator has said: “Who are they actually deceiving with this script?”
Onor has not answered that question directly. He has promised to campaign with “energy, courage and intellectual depth” and insists the PDP remains the only credible opposition to the APC. For now, Nigerians are left to judge the sincerity of that claim against the political company he keeps.
Two Factions, Two Candidates
Onor’s candidacy is further complicated by the existence of a rival PDP structure.
On May 19, the faction led by Tanimu Turaki adopted former President Goodluck Jonathan as its sole presidential candidate. There are now two men bearing the PDP presidential flag from two competing party authorities, each claiming legitimacy.
INEC monitored Onor’s primary, lending it a degree of formal recognition. But with the party’s leadership dispute unresolved and two parallel presidential candidates on the field, the question of which ticket Nigerians will rally behind in 2027 remains unanswered.
A Party in Name
What Tuesday’s primary ultimately illustrates is the condition the PDP finds itself in heading into a consequential election cycle. A party that won four consecutive presidential elections, controlled most of Nigeria’s governorships, and once seemed structurally unbeatable is now producing consensus candidates in factional primaries, with its most prominent internal figure working openly for the opposing side.
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Whether Onor is a genuine presidential contender or a placeholder in a political arrangement that serves interests beyond the PDP’s own survival is a question the party itself seems unwilling, or unable, to answer.
Philip Ibitoye is a Special Correspondent with EKO HOT BLOG. Click here to find daily analysis and critical insight on trending issues in Lagos and other parts of Nigeria.
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