CHUKS NWEZE from Enugu writes that there is uncertainty whether or not the South East will give support to the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) presidential flag bearer, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, having hoped in vain that its loyalty to the party over the years would be rewarded.
Since the return to civil democracy in 1999, Ndigbo, the people of the South East geo-political zone have lent their support to the main opposition party in Nigeria, the People’s Democratic Party, PDP.
This is mainly because many prominent Igbos like Alex Ekwueme, Senator Jim Nwobodo, Engineer Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, Senator Arthur Nzeribe, just to name a few, were among the founding fathers of the party.
However, no matter the reason for their support and massive voting of PDP candidates in elections, the Igbo people until recently have continued to vote the PDP en masse.
Till date, Enugu and Abia have remained PDP states as the states have continued to vote PDP for governorship and and other elections and have remained consistent since 1999.
The other states of the South east, Imo, Anambra and Ebonyi cannot be said to be anything less than PDP. Recall that in 1999, all the South East states were PDP because all the governors in 1999 were all PDP.
Anambra a state currently under the control of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) had Chinwoke Mbadinuju of the PDP as the governor; Abia, Orji Uzor Kalu; Imo Achike Udenwa; Ebonyi Sam Egwu while Enugu state had Chimaroke Nnamani, all these were governors elected on the platform of PDP.
That was the picture until 2003 when Peter Obi of APGA came and things began to tumble for PDP because not only Anambra now has a non-PDP governor, Ebonyi and Imo states as well.
The case of Imo is a bit peculiar. The state had been PDP until the state fell for APGA under Senator Rochas Okorocha. To perpetuate his hold on power, he co-founded APC where he fused his APGA followers.
In the 2019 general election, the state returned to PDP after INEC declared Hon Emeka Ihedioha winner of the governorship election.
However, in controversial circumstances, the Supreme Court upturned Ihediora’s victory after eight months in the saddle and returned Senator Hope Uzodinma as the governor.
From the foregoing, it is clear that Ndigbo of South East have maintained loyalty and support for the PDP. And what is more, even as some states have produced non-PDP governors, in the presidential and national assembly elections, Ndigbo have always voted massively for candidates of the PDP.
However, in a build up to the 2023, no one is sure if the PDP will still get a similar patronage from Ndigbo. The factors that portend this danger are very glaring.
For instance, in 2017, when the then governor of Enugu state, Barr. Sullivan Chime dumped PDP for APC, he said that PDP is doomed. In his words, “PDP is dead.”
Chime, no doubt, was speaking on the premise of the crisis that engulfed PDP at the time that made so many of its members defect to different political parties especially the APC.
Today, PDP is still enmeshed in crisis of confidence as to whether the national chairman, Iyorcha Ayu should remain in office or not.
While Chime left PDP because of internal crisis of the party at the national level, the governor of Ebonyi state, Engr. David Umahi, left the party because he foresaw injustice looming in the party.
Umahi’s foresaw that the turn of Igbo to produce the president of Igbo extraction come, 2023 would be blatantly flouted and the opportunity denied.
It is no more news that Umahi had been vindicated because the PDP refused to honour rotational principle of the party and threw open its presidential ticket which was eventually won by Atiku Abubakar in controversial circumstances.
Today, as the war rages amongst principal actors in the PDP, the breach of the rotational principle in the party not only angered many Igbos, it is also attracting sympathy to the zone.
The preponderant opinions seemed to be “in spite of the overwhelming support Ndigbo had given to the PDP and the outcry that it was the turn of Ndigbo to produce Nigeria president in 2023, it was undeserving of the South East that PDP developed deaf ear and edged Ndigbo out from the presidential contest.
Instead, the former vice president, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, who has been contesting for president since 2007 picked the ticket for the forthcoming presidential polls.
After the primaries of the ruling and the major opposition parties, it was clear that neither APC nor the PDP would pick someone from the South East extraction to run for the presidency.
Recall that in 2015 and 2019 respectively, the South East voted massively for the PDP presidential candidates. While many states in the North and South West were angling for the new party then, the APC, Ndigbo continued to support the then President, Dr. Good luck Jonathan who later lost to the incumbent, President Mohammadu Buhari.
Even with the defeat of the PDP in 2015, Ndigbo did not stop supporting PDP and thus supported Atiku Abubakar who was then the PDP presidential flag bearer and now Atiku the standard bearer of the party.
Consequently, the apex Igbo cultural organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, livid, recently came out to regret the huge support the South East had given to PDP since 1999.
The feeling in the ranks of Ohanaeze Ndigbo was that they had supported Atiku and by extension, PDP in vain.
Ohanaeze even posited that the marginalisation Ndigbo have been suffering in Nigeria since 2015 might not be unconnected with the support Ndigbo gave to Atiku and PDP in the previous elections.
Although Ohanaeze has not come out openly to say “away with PDP, away with Atiku,” there is no doubt that 2023 might be a different ball game for Ndigbo as far as where to pitch its support is concerned.
The national publicity secretary of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Dr. Alex Ogbonnia, in a recent statement said Ohanaeze is regretting supporting Atiku in 2019, an indication that Atiku may not enjoy the overwhelming support he had enjoyed in 2019 in the forthcoming polls.
Ogbonnia in the statement said that he personally wrote Atiku to intimate him that Ndigbo regretted supporting him in the last election saying that the support has caused Ndigbo a lot under the APC led federal government.
“I also wrote Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, reminding him that the current
Igbo travails is as a result of our support to his candidacy in 2019.
Investigation revealed that Ohanaeze had made
numerous press releases urging Nigerians and the international
community to lend support to the quest by the South East for
presidency.
“Several other Igbo activists and interest groups such as Nzuko Umunna led by Senator Chris Anyanwu, Arc Ferdinand Agu, etc were also at the fore-front in the advocacy,” Ogbonnia wrote.
The statement which was a reaction to an accusation by an activist, Kennedy Iyere that Ohanaeze Ndigbo was against Igbo presidency and even collected gratification from the APC presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu to truncate Igbo presidency, noted that Ohanaeze has been committed to the Igbo aspiration to have an Igbo presidency, come 2023.
“From the foregoing, it is clear that Ohanaeze Ndigbo may not have anything to do with Atiku and PDP in the 2023 presidential race, our source revealed.
“What makes you think that Ohanaeze will support Atiku or Tinubu? They will not unless they are hypocrites. For a long time, Ohanaeze has been canvassing for an Igbo presidency even from the time of Nwodo and now Obiozor.
“Since PDP refused to respect the rotational agenda of the party, there is no way any reasonable Igbo man, not to talk of Ohanaeze will support Atiku or PDP,” a political analyst, Ossy Nwigbo told our correspondent in an interview.
“Atiku and PDP are finished in Igboland. Since they made presidential ticket open and reneged on power sharing agenda, Ndigbo will not look their way again,” Comrade Kindness Jonah, Convener, Voice from the East, VEAST, an Igbo interest organisation said.
Since a vote for Atiku is a vote for PDP, it is unlikely that Ndigbo may look the way of Atiku or PDP, come 2023 but time shall tell.
