As the search for a running mate to Atiku Abubakar, the standard bearer of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) hots up, Delta governor, Ifeanyi Okowa, appears the most suitable within the party as the fit and proper person to help Atiku win the 2023 presidential election.

A straw poll conducted by Guardians of Leadership and Democracy, GLD, a pro-democracy group with focus on leadership, good governance, sustainable democracy, innovation and human capital development, has put Okowa in clear lead over three other top members of the PDP.

Straw poll, also known as straw ballot, is usually an ad hoc poll carried out to determine the slant of opinion on an issue or popularity of an individual or group of persons within a community. In modern political communication and marketing, it has become an effective quickfire tool to gauge popularity of issues or suitability of persons for a position.

The group has in the past conducted straw poll (both online and offline) on several national issues and on popularity of categories of Nigerians for certain offices including whether Nigeria should adopt the Parliamentary system of government or continue with the extant Presidential system.

Many respondents to the poll conducted (online and offline) across diverse categories of Nigerians, according to GLD, advised Atiku to pick a running mate with a track record of performance and someone without the baggage of corruption.

A press statement issued in Alausa, Lagos, Thursday, by GLD Executive Secretary, Dr. Robert Ebelo,  said the emergence of Atiku, Bola Tinubu (APC) and Peter Obi (Labour Party), all of them persons with both private and public sector experience, has presented Nigerians a broader option of choices to make in the 2023 Presidential election.

According to the statement, this contrasts with the norm in the past where the race was always reduced to a two-horse race with one horse being the dominant one, making the contest too easy to call.

Ebelo said four notable PDP governors, namely Okowa, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu, Udom Emmanuel of Akwa Ibom and Seyi Makinde of Oyo state, were put forward in the poll which deliberately targeted respondents from among the voting public.

The statement said while Okowa polled 44 percent of total votes, Ugwuanyi polled 28 percent with Udom and Makinde polling 17 and 11 percent respectively.

Criteria considered, according to the statement include antecedents of candidates in education, healthcare delivery, intra and inter-party harmony skill, infrastructure development, temperament, job and wealth creation vision, zonal suitability, among other human development indices.

Since the election of Atiku on May 28, as PDP standard bearer in the 2023 presidential election, the choice of his running mate has become a major issue among the party leadership, as well as the task of unifying the party.

Atiku, himself, had acknowledged that there exists within the party fold cases of unsettled grievances, stressing that as a unifier, he was determined to work with the leadership to ensure unity of the party.

On Wednesday, June 8, he held a meeting with some governors of the party where the issue of running mate and cohesion among party members were said to have been discussed.