Ohanaeze says no going back on Igbo president, rejects PDP no-zoning formula

• Zoning will not favour PDP in 2023, says Bauchi gov
• It’s fair for South to produce next president – Masari

Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide has rejected the Bala Mohammed-led committee report of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, which recommended that the 2023 presidential ticket of the party should be thrown open to all sections of the country.

Governor Mohammed had said zoning the presidential ticket of the party might cause some regions to feel excluded during the 2023 general election.

He spoke during a Channels TV programme on Thursday, stressing that the party would provide a level-playing field for all candidates, and encourage a merit-based process.

“In 2015, we lost because we were so over-confident and there was too much internal wrangling. We lost in the north, even in the states where we had comparative advantage, because of the wrangling that particularly came out of our lack of internal democracy.

“And that is why today, we are saying that we have seen some zones that have not had a shot at the presidency for a long time — the South-East and the North-East. But we’re not yet going to say that the choice of the presidential flag bearer should be left exclusively to those zones. We’ll give a level-playing field because good things are from every part of the country, and we have good hands.

“We are just saying that if we zone completely to those places, there may be some feelings of exclusion. There will be some feelings of even shortchanging Nigerians in terms of presenting the best. The merit-based leadership recruitment that we want to do, is even at the same time, looking at history.”

But Ohanaeze said that the Mohammed-led committee report was capable of impugning the unity of the country and asked for the withdrawal of the report that it described as unconscionable.

The Igbo parent body noted that it was committed to Nigeria producing a President of Igbo extraction in 2023, adding that it would willingly identify with any group that is ready for the bargain.

In a statement, National Publicity Secretary of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Chief Alex Ogbonnia said, “Ohanaeze views the report by the Bala Mohammed led committee as most despicable, un-reflective and unconscionable. It is very worrisome that some highly placed Nigerians who have benefited so much from the unity of the country would be inclined to decisions and actions that will further inflame the passions of the patient but aggrieved part of the country.

“For the avoidance of doubt, Nigerians agreed on the rotation of the presidency between the North and the South; in which case it is the turn of the South after the tenure of President Muhammadu Buhari. For clarity purposes, both the South West and the South-South had both taken their turns in the persons of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo and Dr Goodluck Ebele Jonathan respectively. It is rather very unpatriotic and a trifle on the sensibilities of the Igbo for the committee to even suggest the rotation of the presidency to the North East in the first instance and open to every part of Nigeria as a major slight.

“It is disturbing that all the indignities, perceived and real, that the South-East suffers in the current dispensation are the outcome of the Igbo support to the PDP since 1999. It is on record that in 1999, the Igbo were in hock with the PDP through which Chief Olusegun Obasanjo emerged the President of Nigeria; same in 2003 and the subsequent elections in Nigeria.

“On the other hand, the Igbo had invested much political capital in the PDP only to be betrayed by its apparent lack of principles. The leadership of the PDP is advised to retract the comment made by Alh Bala Mohammed and countermand the content of the obnoxious committee report in the interest of the party.

“Let it be known that Ndigbo does not wax so eloquent on political parties. The Igbo is bound to advertise the party that caters to the interest of our people. It is instructive that Senator Ali Ndume, a chieftain of the All Peoples Congress (APC) is among the prominent Northerners that canvass for zoning the Nigerian presidency to the South East for the 2023 presidential election. Other prominent APC chieftains are highly committed to the realisation of this project and we will be very delighted to work with them in the overall interest of Ndigbo.

Also speaking on the issue, Governor of Katsina State, Aminu Masari, says it will be in the interest of fairness for a candidate from the southern region to emerge president in the 2023 general election.

Masari stated this during an interview on Channels Television, which was aired on Thursday.

With barely two years to the 2023 elections, there have been speculations on which zone will get the presidential ticket of the two major political parties — All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Speaking on what he thinks would happen after the end of President Muhammadu Buhari’s tenure, the Katsina governor said the APC has a “bright future” in the country when compared to other parties.

 “With regards to zoning, fair is fair. If you ask me, I would, as a person — Aminu — think we should move the presidency to the southern part of the country,” he said.

When asked which part of the south he prefers, he said “south is south”.

Masari also claimed that no political party has impacted the lives of “ordinary Nigerians” positively through social intervention programmes as the APC has done.