R-L: Prof Soludo, Sen Ken Nnamani, Chief Simeon Okeke, Dr. Alex Ekwueme, Chief Achike Udenwa, Dr Sam Egwu, Mrs. Chinwe Obaji, and Senator Ben Obi outside the Hotel Concorde, Owerri venue of the Igbo Summit
The Igbo leaders said yesterday that the president may have it rough in the polls in the South-East if the issue of the PDP substantive national chairman was not immediately resolved in the zone’s favour.
The last holder of the office of the PDP chairman, zoned to the South East under the PDP internal arrangement, Dr. Okwesilieze Nwodo, had been forced to resign amid the intrigues that trailed the January presidential primaries of the party, throwing up his deputy, Dr. Haliru Mohammed, in acting national chairman capacity.
There have been insinuations of a scheme by the North to retain Mohammed in office as acting national chairman until after the polls, implying that he may run the remaining tenure of an office earmarked by the PDP for the South East.
Rising from a meeting in Abuja yesterday, a group of eminent South East leaders asked Jonathan, who is the leader of the party, as well as members of the National Executive Committee, NEC, of the party to, as a matter of urgency, look at the issue and find a solution to it, against the backdrop that it becomes more dangerous when taken into cognizance the voting strength of the zone which they put at over 24 million registered voters.
Great vacuum
The group noted that the absence of a PDP national chairman has created a great vacuum, just as they said that the present political arrangement has left the South East as the only geo-political zone without a first-tier position in power-sharing, rotation of key political offices in Nigeria in line with the party’s zoning arrangement of 2007 and in pursuance of principle of justice, equity and fairness.
According to a communiqué signed by former governor of Anambra State and chairman of the group, Dr. Chukwuemeka Ezeife, the South East leaders also agreed to send a special ‘Save our Soul’ message to Jonathan to intervene.
The communiqué was also signed by former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon Agunwa Anaekwe (Anambra), Professor Ihechukwu Maduike (Abia); Senator Sylvanus Ngele (Ebonyi); Chief M.O. Kalu (Imo); Chief Silas Ilo (Enugu); Mazi Larry Nwosu (representing Igbo in the 19 northern states), Dr. Chinweoke Mbadinuju; Dr. Douglas Acholonu and Dr. Ifedi Okwenna, who is the group’s secretary.
The communiqué read in part, “That it will be too dangerous and counterproductive for the PDP to allow this current status quo to remain longer than necessary or to snowball into the next general elections.
“That it is spurious, self-serving and infantile to argue that time is too short for the party to have another national chairman or that the acting national chairman be allowed to use the national chairmanship position to rally support from his people for President Jonathan. This to us is a celebration of failure.”
Noting that silence on the part of the president to the development was not palatable to the people of the South East and that he should intervene, the group said, “his continued silence on this may be assumed to be acquiescence. The president is advised not to reward the unassailable South East support with official denial early in the life of his administration.
“There are over seven million registered voters in the core South East states and over seventeen million other Igbo who registered across Nigeria are already mobilized to cast their votes for the candidacy of President Jonathan unless they are forced to do otherwise.
‘’With dismay the inability of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to select from South East a party faithful as substantive national chairman to replace the former national chairman of the party, Dr. Okwesilieze Nwodo more than one month after his resignation.
“That as at today, the South South occupies the office of the president of Nigeria; North West has vice president and acting national Chairman of PDP; North Central has Senate President; south west has Speaker of House of Representative; north east has secretary to the Government of the Federation and south east where the national chairmanship of PDP was originally zoned to has nothing.
“That in the National Working Committee of the ruling PDP, no single person is from the south east geopolitical zone.
Ndigbo and power sharing
“That Ndigbo were not only the first major ethnic group in Nigeria to openly and unequivocally endorse the candidacy of President Jonathan for the 2011 presidential race but also spurned others to do the same. Ndigbo later voted with nearly every single vote of theirs in the delegate primaries of PDP to ensure the emergence of President Jonathan as the candidate of PDP. This is the first time in the political history of modern Nigeria that Ndigbo have given a near total adoption to any single presidential candidate in an election year.
“That it is very unfair and uncharitable to say that the delay in nominating a substantive PDP national chairman from south east is because the south east governors are against such a nomination as our enquiries have proved otherwise.
“Ndigbo despite its unambiguous and unequivocal support for President Jonathan’s government is again losing out in the power sharing, rotation of key offices in the government of Nigeria.
“That the position of the PDP national chairman remains allocated to Ndigbo in the PDP zoning arrangement of 2007 and that for fairness, justice and equity, the PDP should appoint its substantive national chairman from south east without any further delay.
“Ndigbo insist that what is theirs should be restored to them without any further delay and that no zone, group or individual should henceforth be allowed to again appropriate whatever is due to Ndigbo under any guise or form.
“That it will be too dangerous and counterproductive for the PDP to allow this current status quo to remain longer than necessary or to snowball into the next general election.
“That it is spurious, self-serving and infantile to argue that time is too short for the party to have another national chairman or that the acting national chairman be allowed to use the national chairmanship position to rally support from his people for President Jonathan. This to us is a celebration of failure.
“That the PDP should commence without any further delay the process for the emergence from south east a substantive national chairman for the party in the interest of justice, fairness, equity and peaceful co-existence of all Nigerians”
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