As the presidential primary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) draws near, Femi Fani-Kayode, former Aviation Minister, has listed the qualifications anyone who will emerge the party’s candidate must possess.

The primary slated for October 6 is billed to take place at Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital.

State governors on the platform of the PDP had in a meeting with the National Working Committee (NWC), picked the Rivers State capital as the venue for the primary ditching Enugu and Akwa Ibom, on the excuse that Port Harcourt had more hotel space than the two states.

With its presidential expression of interest and nomination form fixed at N12million, the party has a long list of aspirants aspiring for the exalted office in the land.

NGPOLITICS recalls names of those in the race to include: Atiku Abubakar, former vice president; Bukola Saraki, President of the 8th Senate; David Mark, a serving Senator.

Others are: Aminu Tambuwal, Sokoto State Governor; Ahmed Makarfi, former caretaker chairman of PDP; Attahiru Bafarawa, an astute businessman; Taminu Turaki; Sule Lamido, former Jigawa governor; Rabiu Kwankwaso, a serving senator and Kano ex-governor; David Jang, former Plateau governor and Ibrahim Dankwambo, Gombe State governor.

For Fani-kayode anyone who must emerge the party’s candidate must first be in touch with his people.

•Our pres. candidate must have a massive support base in his zone.

•He must be strong and resilient.

•He must be a true believer that is ready to fight Buhari with every fiber of his being.

•Defend his mandate with his very life and

•If necessary, he must be ready to die for Nigeria.

Although the former minister has publicly shown his support to Makarfi, the former governor does not fit into his above listed qualification. In his first ‘must possess’ qualities, Fani-Kayode said the aspirant must have a massive support base in his zone.

Finding from NGPOLITICS shows Mr Makarfi is from the North West geo-political zone. This is the same zone President Muhammadu Buhari hails from and at the time of publishing this report the Nigerian leader still commands a cult followership in the region. This has seen the former PDP chairman loosing already.

Another aspirant that would have fit in properly is Mr Kwankwaso, but since he embarked on a self-imposed exile this has seen him loosing his base particularly Kano State from where he held sway and delivered over 1.9million votes to Buhari.

Kwankwaso has been in political rivalry with his successor, Abdullahi Ganduje, with the latter preventing him from coming home.