2023: Out Of Contention For PDP, APC Presidential Tickets, South-east Gropes For VP, Senate President

By Chidi Levi

Contrary to Southeast’s desire, Nigeria’s two main political parties, the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP and the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC will, in 2023, not be fielding Presidential candidates from that part of the country, this magazine can authoritatively reveal.

Southeast is an opportunistic Joiner- APC

“Our party, the APC, has zoned its Pesidential ticket to the South but I can tell you confidently that the Southerner who will be picking the ticket will not come from the Southeast”, a National officer of the party who is of a Northern extraction, told this magazine in confidence last week.

He further added that “South-east can not reap where it did not sow. Don’t forget that in 2015 and 2019, the South-east was in total rejection of the APC, the party cannot, in 2023, reward that rejection with a Presidential ticket”

Reminded that the Party now controls two out of the five South-east States, and has in its fold, a plethora of State and Federal lawmakers, the APC National officer simply quipped: “They are opportunistic joiners, they are not foundationers. They strolled into an already built and furnished house and hope to take it over. They were absent when we were toiling for the foundation. Manna doesn’t fall that way”

Southeast can’t win us the Presidency-PDP

Though the PDP is yet to officially make definite pronouncements about the zoning of its Presidential ticket, a top party official from North-central was categorical as to where the party will zone its 2023 Presidential ticket. Said he:

“I agree that the Southeast has a legitimate claim to the 2023 Presidency on our ticket, having solidly supported the party since 1999, but remember that our party’s unwritten rotational arrangement for the Presidency is between North and South

“President Obasanjo from the South-west ruled for eight years and President Jonathan from South-south ruled for almost six years. PDP’s only President from the North, President Yar’Adua, ruled for only two years.

“You can now see that out of PDP’s 16 years reign, the South held sway for 14 years and North for only two years. It is, therefore, logical that the North produces the next PDP president”

Besides the above argument, the PDP top shot was also of the view that “we are not a ruling party and looking at the present political configuration and temperature in Nigeria, the South-east cannot win the PDP the presidency at least, for now, maybe it can in the future.

“The counterforce our party needs to rout out the APC from power is a Northern- Muslim candidate but this does not mean that the North alone can produce the President”

Ironically, many PDP chieftains of Southern extraction, including the founder of African Independent Television, AIT, Chief Raymond Dokpesi, share a similar view.

Dokpesi: “We are all Nige­rians and there is no need for us to keep deceiving ourselves at this point. At the age of 70 and with my experience in or­ganising campaigns in this country, I can tell you that unless there is a candidate from the North, in my own considered opinion, the PDP will not stand a chance of winning the election.

“Let us look at it honestly. Former President Olusegun Obasanjo from the South-west did eight years; Goodluck Jonathan from the South-south also did six years. That made a total of 14 years.

“On the other hand, Uma­ru Yar’Adua from the North did three years, so there is an imbalance of 11 years. If in 2019, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar had not been rigged out of that election, he would have come back in 2023 to say that he wants to do a second term. And would anybody have stood in his way? No!

“So, for the PDP, the Presi­dential candidate must come from the North in 2023. People should exercise patience be­cause it will still come back to the South”

Eyeing the VP, Senate President Slots

Aware that the South-east has lost out in the chase for their parties’ 2023 Presidential tickets, several chieftains of the two parties from the zone who spoke to this magazine argued that it was time to come to terms with the grim political reality facing the Southeast and restrategize.

“It will be disastrous if we lose both head and tail. We must get the tail if the head is no longer available to us. We will, therefore, be making a big push for the VP and Senate President slots. We won’t allow both positions to slip away”, a PDP chieftain from Enugu told The Source.

However, River state Governor, Nyesom Wike’s rumoured Vice Presidential ambition, should its berth on the shores of reality, could jeopardise the South-east’s quest for the position.

Wike is allegedly working for the emergence of his Sokoto counterpart, Aminu Tambuwal, as the PDP Presidential flagbearer with himself as the running mate.

However, an unconfirmed source insisted that Wike and Tambuwal are no longer  in same camp since the leadership crisis that enmeshed the PDP at the National level. Wike is looking at, allegedly, running  with Atiku, or going to the Senate.

The dilemma of Southeast APC chiefs

Many of them, including Ebonyi State Governor, Engineer Dave Umahi, who was specifically promised the party’s ticket, was lured to the APC with the promise that the presence of top politicians from the zone in the party would facilitate the zoning of its 2023 Presidential ticket there.

These Party Chiefs have been selling the APC in the Southeast based on the above understanding, but the unfolding realities in the party have now left them in a big dilemma.

With a Southern Presidential candidate, the VP slot will naturally go to the North leaving the Senate President slot open for grap. Whether to push for the Senate President slot and how to explain to Ndigbo that the APC sold them a dummy with its presidential ticket promise are now the dilemma facing the likes of governors Umahi and Governor Hope Uzodinma of Imo state.

Sounds of Pessimism

Signs that the APC will after all not keep to its promise to the Southeast emerged on Friday when Governor Umahi featured on Channel TV’s current affairs programme, Politics Today, sounding pessimistic.

His words: “The heartbeat of the people of the South-East is that they should be given a chance whether in the PDP or the APC for Presidency of this country for the reason of equity, fairness and justice.

“I took that position in the PDP and one of the reasons why I took that position is because the South-East people have supported the PDP all the way and they have never been allowed to do that.

“If I follow APC for this length of time, and they don’t give the South-East an opportunity, I will feel bad.

“I will feel bad if I stay the same length of time as I did in the PDP and that happens. But I can’t say what I will do. It depends on what God places in my mind”

He seems to, now, have his regrets.