2023:PDP,APC MAY DUMP S`EAST in PICKING PRESIDENTIAL TICKET-OKORI

2023: PDP, APC May Dump S’East In Picking Presidential Ticket –Okorie

The founder and former National Chairman of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) and chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief Chekwas Okorie in this interview with KENNETH OFOMA weighs in on current political developments in the country, especially the presidential zoning controversy besetting the two major political parties in the country, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC). He declares that the two parties may dump South East if leaders in the region fail to rise in unison

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What is your take on the report of PDP zoning committee headed by Benue Governor Samuel Ortom, which threw the presidential ticket of the party open, a deviation from their constitution which recognizes zoning?

For me, I’m not surprised at all because for more than two years I had already given the hint that PDP was not in any frame of mind to, when I say PDP, those who own it, they are not in any frame of mind to allow an Igbo man become the presidential candidate of their party.?I said that more than two years ago and repeatedly after that.

The fact that they are setting a zoning committee at this last minute was just a gimmick that can only deceive the unwary. And at the same time they sold form to every person that wanted to buy; it’s a clear indication that they have no plans to refund anybody his money or to take people’s money without allowing them the right of participation in primary which is the essence of the money, the fee they are charging.

So all of these things have happened, and any person who can remember anything politically in Nigeria will know that as soon as 2015 election was over, lost and won, PDP immediately constituted the Ike Ekweremadu Committee which zoned the 2019 presidency to the North and giving the Northern aspirants over four years to prepare for it.

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And when they came for their convention in Port-Harcourt there was not a single Southern aspirant that was there because they obeyed the party directives.

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But in this case, since 2019 they ignored it, because they have their game plan, only to come at this last minute, so I’m not impressed by Ortom Committee or whatever they think they are doing, it’s a fate accompli, they are throwing it open and Igbo people if they have the gut to do anything let them, otherwise let them continue to follow them sheepishly because they are not giving any chance to an Igbo man whether its Igbo of Rivers or Igbo South East or Igbo of Delta.

As far as they are concerned Igbo is Igbo, it doesn’t matter when you claim you are no longer Igbo they still know who is Igbo. They treated Peter Odili as Igbo, even when he never admitted openly that he was Igbo but he was still treated as Igbo and he got Igbo treatment, and so all the others will get the same treatment.

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When you flip the coin to APC, what do you expect with regard to the party zoning her presidential ticket to South-East not just South?

I’m not expecting anything different from APC either. Yes, I’m not expecting anything different because look at APC, the party where I belong. Let the truth be told, they waited for PDP to choose their chairmanship candidate from the Central, and as soon as that happened they followed suit.

And here we are, they believe that the Northern political space that’s where you have the numbers to win or lose elections, they have promoted that propaganda even when PDP people are talking they will tell you to win election is the important thing and not zoning.

?Meaning that to win an election somebody has to come from the North. But that to me is just propaganda that cannot be substantiated with any statistical data.

But having said that, is APC also thinks that it will not surrender the Northern political space to the PDP which is what they believe?will happen if they go to South and take a candidate while PDP has a Northern candidate then they will play up ethnic and religious propaganda, perhaps to have advantage over the one from the South. So it’s a game they are playing up there.

But unfortunately here we don’t have a game.

Some of the PDP aspirants from the North like Bukola Saraki, Bala Mohammed, Aminu Tambuwal and Muhammad Hayatuddeen are moving around together visiting governors and drumming up consensus. But you hardly see their Southern counterparts whether in APC or PDP talking to one another, moving together. How do you see this?

When the North has always adopted that type of strategy even in the Second Republic, there were about five aspirants that eventually emerged out of so many in NPN. But eventually they went to the Sultan of Sokoto at that time, Abubakar Sadiq the third, and he made a choice and said it was going to be Sehu Shagari; every other person, Maitama Sule, Adamu Chiroma, all of them succumbed to the endorsement of Sultan of Sokoto. So it’s not a new thing for them, they always managed to arrive at a consensus amongst themselves; that is what is lacking amongst our people. However, I have noticed some governors from the South that accompanied Gov Wike to go and see Babangida, that’s a good development hoping that they will be sincere in that approach and when Babangida is also, in recognition of the fact that PDP have proprietors, they have owners; Babangida is one of the owners of PDP along with his neighbour and brother Adulsalam Abubakar. They are the people who decide who gets what, especially presidential ticket in PDP.

You mentioned South East governors that followed Wike to see former Military president Babangida and many people are wondering, does it mean that South East doesn’t have serving governors who are presidential materials, considering the fact that the sitting governors always have some kind of advantage like money to throw about unlike others?

It’s not about having a president material, we have that even among the serving governors but you don’t conscript somebody to run. If Wike didn’t come to say that he has capacity, he has this and that nobody will go and conscript him.

Forget about all about this gimmick of getting people to buy forms for them, these are all childish things. If the governors in the South East don’t feel like contesting, that is in PDP, you don’t go and compel anybody, in fact the business of the president is a serious business.

So it’s good that they have followed him there but let me tell you sincerely, the South- East leaders in PDP have not laid the right path in politics, all these ones they are doing now will amount to nothing.

For instance why I’m emphasizing PDP is because our claim in APC is not very strong; I mean everybody knows the South-East performance in APC, we are just coming up, we are playing based on sentiment, justice, equity, morality more or less.

But in PDP they have claims, very strong claims and the leaders ought to have met long ago to tell PDP that if they failed to zone the presidency to South-East, in spite of the provisions of the constitution of the party, that they will meet and review their continued membership and support of the party. That is the type of strong statement I had expected from the leaders of PDP, Iwuanyanwu and the rest of them, who are pioneer members of the party.

They have not said any such thing, so telling everybody it’s our turn to me is sounding like a broken record. Do something to show political consequence for being denied, or sidelined and excluded. You have followers, you have the numbers, if you ignore states in the South East PDP can never have it easy,

because when you say that Igbo people are not supporting it, it means Igbo people all power the country, everybody will comply and they know that our number determines who becomes what.

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