According to report, the Peoples Democratic Party in the South-East is reaching out to the party’s leadership and presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, to ensure that the PDP standard-bearer chooses a running mate from the zone.
According to reports, the party’s leadership in the South-East contended that after failing to provide the zone the presidential ticket despite the fact that it had continuously backed the PDP since 1999, the only option was to give it the vice-presidential position.
In May, Atiku won the PDP presidential primary, defeating other candidates such as Senator Pius Anyim, a former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, and Sam Ohuabunwa, an ex-President of the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria.
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Following the PDP primary, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, the Igbo people’s premier socio-cultural organization, accused the party of forsaking the zone.
Mr. Peter Obi, Atiku’s 2019 running partner, left the party a few days before the primary and joined the Labour Party, on whose platform he would run for president in 2023.
Since Obi joined the LP, there has been a huge outpouring of support for him. Analysts have cautioned that Obi’s defection to the LP might hurt the PDP’s chances in the South-East, where its presidential candidate received 1.6 million votes in 2019, compared to over 403,000 votes for President Muhammadu Buhari (retd.) who ran on the All Progressives Congress platform.
In an interview with Newsmen, Nnamdi Nwagwu, the Publicity Secretary of the Anambra State PDP, stated that the South-East, like the South-South, had wanted the vice-presidential seat.
He pointed out that both the PDP and the APC had ignored the South-East, and that the zone’s best chance for VP was with the PDP.
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Only the VP position, he argued, could ensure support for the party in the South-East.
He said, “They (South-East leaders) are making such a demand for the VP slot. Let us see how it goes. They are making the demand because every party has sidelined the South-East and it is only in the PDP that they can get the VP slot because they cannot get it from the APC as the APC already has a southern presidential candidate.
“Only the VP slot can secure votes for the party in the zone, if not, it will be difficult to wrest the votes of the region from Peter Obi. And let us see how it goes if the VP slot will be given or not.”
The PDP’s Imo State chapter, for its part, claimed it was unconcerned about Obi’s rising popularity in the South-East.
Collins Opuruzor, the state PDP’s Director-General of New Media, stated that the PDP in the region was unconcerned with Obi’s candidacy.
He stated that the party was mobilizing not only in the South-East but also across the country to ensure the PDP’s triumph.
According to Opuruzor, the PDP presidential candidate in 2023 has a good chance of winning.
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When contacted, the National Vice-Chairman of the PDP (South-East zone), Chief Ali Odefa, said, “I’m not the National Chairman of the party to comment on this. Contact the National Chairman of the party for this, please.”
But the PDP’s National Publicity Secretary, Debo Ologbunagba, in an interview with one of our correspondents, dismissed Obi’s popularity.
On whether the party considered Obi’s growing support as a threat, Ologbunagba said, “When we talk about popularity, that is your assessment and you are entitled to it. When we get to the polls, the popularity will reveal itself.
“We are not talking about somebody’s popularity. That is not what we are talking about. We are focused on our party. That is the important thing. We are focused on what we are doing and what we will do for Nigerians. We are focused on insecurity, our kids being out of school for one year.”
Also, a former presidential aspirant of the PDP, Sam Ohuabunwa, said in picking a running mate, the party would choose somebody who could bring votes.
He stated, “The PDP leadership will do a lot of hard work and will not just focus on dividing the so-called Obi’s votes in the South-East and while he may also have followers outside his region, we are not sure yet. All we see now is social media hype. We cannot be sure until we get to the polls. What we read in the media may not be what happens in real life.”
But the Spokesman, Peter Obi Support Network, Sani Altukry, took a swipe at the PDP.
According to Altukry, the Peter Obi phenomenon is now a national movement and revolution that will bring an end to the PDP and the APC.
He said, “Some say it is a revolution, a present reality that will bring an end to the PDP and the APC as major political parties because they failed to do the right thing.
“They failed to address the yearnings of Nigerians for equity and justice. And they have also failed the youth of this country. The youth yearn for good government, an end to ASUU (Academic Staff Union of Universities) strike and graduate unemployment. The youth are angry that Nigeria is today the poverty capital of the world because of the PDP and the APC misrule and Peter Obi’s rallying cry to move the country from consumption to production is a rallying cry for hope.”
He added that the ‘Peter Obi Movement’ was also a protest against the injustice meted out to the people of southern Nigeria when the PDP failed to zone the presidency to the South.
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“Mark my words, the PDP will receive the shock of its life as its presidential candidate will come second runner-up while Labour Party’s presidential candidate, Peter Obi, will emerge as a winner in the 2023 presidential election. It is quite unfortunate that the party lost its followers due to injustice,” he added.
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