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From Magnus Eze, Enugu , Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja, Chinelo Ogbogo, Chukwudi Nweje
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has come under fire for throwing its 2023 presidential ticket open to aspirants from all sections of the country.
National Executive Committee (NEC) of the party at its meeting on Wednesday resolved to dump zoning in the nomination of its presidential candidate.
This followed the recommendation of the zoning committee chaired by Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom, that the presidential ticket be thrown open to all qualified aspirants.
Leading the charge against the party are Ohanaeze Ndigbo and Middle Belt Forum, Tanko Yakasai and Kassim Afegbua also flayed the main opposition party
Ohanaeze through its National Publicity Secretary, Alex Ogbonnia, warned that Igbo may vote against the PDP, noting that the mood of the nation favoured power shift to the South, especially the South East.
The group said the position of the Southern and Middle Belt Leadership Forum, the Southern Governors’ Forum and indeed all right thinking patriotic Nigerians was emphatic that a northerner must not hand over to a northerner. It also warned Igbo that run after presidential aspirants from other geopolitical zones, that “history is replete with how a betrayer ends.”
The group said the PDP had a choice to make; nominate a northerner and fail woefully and be buried with an epitaph: “There once existed a treacherous political party which changed its goal post at the middle of the game.”
Ogbonnia, however, reasoned that the party’s National Chairman, Iyorcha Ayu, may have thrown the sale of the presidential forms open to rake in money for the party.
Reacting, the Middle Belt Forum (MBF) said its position against producing a presidential candidate from the north has not changed, warning that it would campaign vigorously against any political party that fields a northerner as its candidate.
President of MBF, Dr. Bitrus Pogu told Daily Sun that they have principles and would always stand by them regardless of who is involved.
He previously told Daily Sun that the country has had a president from the North for eight years and it was only fair that power should return to the South. “We have been very consistent in our clamour for a president from the South and we have not changed our stance. President Muhammadu Buhari is from the north and he has ruled for eight years, so, this time around, the presidency should go to the South. I want to make it clear that the Middle Belt Forum has resolved to campaign against any political party that elects a presidential candidate from the north. We will campaign against such a person and that is our final decision,” he said.
•PDP weakening its chances -Yakasai
Elder statesman, Yakasai, said by throwing its presidential ticket open, the PDP was weakening its chances in the 2023 election.
“Politics in Nigeria now is politics of opportunism, there is no standard. Whatever they think they can use to get an advantage, they will do it. The PDP is weakening their chances by throwing the ticket open because there are some northerners that the South would not be interested in voting. But if eventually All Progressives Congress (APC) gives the ticket to the likes of Bola Tinubu, a lot of people will prefer to vote for a Muslim northerner while some will vote for them,” he said.
•PDP’ll pay dearly -Afegbua
Former Commissioner for Information and Orientation in Edo State, Afegbua, also warned that PDP would pay dearly for jettisoning zoning.
In a statement, yesterday, he accused Ayu of pretentiously working for the emergence of former vice president, Atiku Abubakar.
He also promised that “all southern PDP governors who are part of the plot to foist a Northern candidate on the party will soon be exposed to all. We will treat them like black sheep of the Southern Nigeria family. We will accordingly chronicle their political trajectory and put them where they belong. We will expose them openly to all and sundry as enemies of the South, and those who have stabbed the South in the back. We will not allow them to rest.”
•Babatope, Anyim, Ozichukwu react
Former Minister of Transport, Chief Ebenezer Babatope said: “NEC has taken a decision, as far as I am concerned it is binding on all of us.”
This as former Secretary to Government of the Federation and presidential aspirant, Anyim Pius Anyim, pleged to accept the party’s position.
Anyim, who spoke at a consultative meeting with former members of the PDP National Working Committee ( NWC), yesterday, in Abuja, said: “NEC decided that zoning should take the back seat. Very well and good. In a democracy, there are three certainties- tenure, process, structure. As a party, I accept the position of the party.”
Regardless, former PDP National Vice chairman, South East, Nze Fidelis Ozichukwu, told Daily Sun that the party’s decision would have ripple effect.
He said the South tried its best in pushing for the ticket to be zoned to it, noting that the leadership of the party probably knew something that Southern leaders do not know.
