Daniel Kanu
National Chairman of United Progressives Party (UPP), Chief Chekwas Okorie, has berated the leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on its latest decision to jettison the rotation of its presidential slot to the South East geopolitical zone in 2023, accusing them of being insensitive, callous and unprincipled.
He also flayed the positions being taken by some prominent political leaders in the zone concerning the quest to produce NigeriaN President of Igbo extraction in 2023.
He told Sunday Sun that equity demanded that South East should be allowed and supported to enable the region address its challenges ranging from economy to infrastructures.
Okorie expressed worry on the position of the PDP, who through the National Chairman of its BOT, Jibrin Walid, said the presidential slot would no longer go to the South East, a region that has made a huge political investment with the PDP.
Said Okorie: “It is sad that the PDP is shifting its position from the Southeast in terms of producing the next president in 2023. The PDP through the National Chairman of its BOT, Sen. Jibrin Walid, effectively jettisoned the rotation of its presidential slot for 2023 now it is the turn of the South East. This is callous, insensitive and unscrupulous.
“Since the beginning of the present democratic dispensation in 1999, the people of the South East domiciled over 90 percent of their political investment with the PDP. I expect the South East PDP leaders to respond decisively to this or forever shut their mouth up.”
The statesman spoke further: “2023 provides Ndigbo their brightest opportunity to produce the long-overdue Igbo president of Nigeria. It is worrisome though, that while eminent and respected opinion leaders from other political zones are lending their weighty voices in our favour, some of our own, (South Easterners) supposedly enlightened people are displaying very embarrassing lack of self-confidence and defeatist attitude that will obviously pain to no limits the valiant souls of the legendary, courageous and ebullient Dr. Azikiwe, Dr. Michael Okpara, and Dim Odumegwu-Ojukwu, among other heroes of the geopolitical zone.