Igbo have undilutedly supported PDP since 1999, yet they ain’t considered worthy of being touted as PDP”s Presidential Candidate. What insolence!! Perhaps, PDP thinks the Igbo are unsellable?
Since the advent of democracy in 1999, the Southeastern part of Nigeria has only identified with the PDP in what seems like an inseparable marriage. Even in 2019, when President Buhari of APC, a Notherner, was in the Presidential contest with Atiku Abubakar of PDP, also a Northerner, they gave PDP a bloc vote to such an embarassing level that APC could not secure the required 25 percent constitutional spread in some Southeast states.
The Southeast zone has been so loyal to the PDP that the zone undoubtedly deserve to be rewarded by the party with fielding one of them as her presidential candidate in 2023. It is a right well deserved under the platform of Peoples Demcratic Party (PDP) and not in the APC that has nearly zero presence in the zone.
However, It baffles me these days to see some southeasterners demanding that the APC field a southeast candidate on a platter of gold. Putting forward a candidate from where your political presence is near zero? Such request is tantamount to asking the APC to commit a political suicide.
It is understandable that the Southeast zone has never produced a president since the advent of democracy in 1999, and they deserve to do for the sake of fairness and equity. But the simple fact here is that APC has no presence in the east, and such demand should be channeled to the PDP that the region has given so much to.
To an average Southeasterner, their few political leaders in the APC are considered as outcasts, and are not even enjoying much support from their own people. If anyone will be sincere, the time is simply not ripe for the APC to gamble with such demand.
If PDP is not even considering the zone for 2023 presidency, what is the essence of the lifelong loyalty? I am of the opinion that the Southeast zone really need to restrategize and reconsider their political alliance with the PDP. Some Southeast political leaders know this, and are trying to let their people see reason. Some of them who have the tendency of national acceptance are all in APC, but the problem is that they are not even enjoying the support of their own people.
Igbo have undilutedly supported PDP since 1999, yet they ain’t considered worthy of being touted as PDP”s Presidential Candidate. What insolence!! Perhaps, PDP thinks the Igbo are unsellable?
Let the Ndigbo stop putting all their eggs in one basket. The way out for them is to consider a new political re-alignment in 2023. If you are not valued in a relationship, common sense deserves you look elsewhere.
I stand to be corrected though, but that is just the way I see it.
~ Alimi Ibn Fattykolly
