From Magnus Eze, Enugu
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has been warned against imminent implosion, the type that occurred during former president Goodluck Jonathan’s re-election bid in 2025, should the party fail to zone its presidential ticket to the South East.
A pan-Igbo socio-political body, Igbo Leadership Development Foundation (ILDF), which stated this, urged the party to micro-zone its ticket to the region for the sake of equity, fairness, justice and good conscience.
The foundation noted that its insistence of the emergence of a president of South East extraction in next year’s general is because it is the only geopolitical zone in southern Nigeria that has not produced a president for the country in the present democratic dispensation, and since the end of the civil war in 1970.
Addressing newsmen in Enugu, yesterday, the ILDF stated that a president from South East would heal permanently the wounds of the civil war.
In a memo addressed to the 37-member PDP zoning committee, by ILDF Chairman, Godwin Udibe, National Secretary, Onyebuchi Obeta, and Director, Public Affairs, Law Mefor, the group noted that the articles of the party’s constitution and the federal character principle, were in support of rotation and zoning of the presidency.
“Those who fail to learn from history are said to be condemned to repeat class. There will be consequences. South East would very likely vote against the PDP in protest if denied the presidential ticket of the party. This is not an idle threat. South East is a PDP zone and should be treated respectfully.
“As a matter of justice and equity, we expect that PDP leaders in other geopolitical zones should all support that the 2023 PDP presidential candidacy should be directly zoned to the South East as a matter of justice and good faith, in order to preserve the unity and integrity of the PDP. We request the 37 members of the PDP special committee on zoning to find the courage to recommend that the presidency be zoned to the South East,” the group said.