Reacting to speculations making the rounds that Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has retained its national chairmanship position in the South which presupposes that the Presidency will go to the North, Olorungo Kenneth Gbagi, who is a former minister of State of Education and former governor of Anambra State, Dr. Chukwuemeka Ezeife stated that the party is yet to take a decision. PDP holds its National Convention on October 30 and 31 in Abuja. Gbagi said that given the fact that the north presently occupies the presidency, it is expected that in 2023 power will return to the south as it will be in the best interest of the country.
Speaking further on the matter, he said decision on zoning can only be taken by the hierarchy of the party after the zoning committee recently inaugurated by it has submitted it report. However, pressed further on the stance of the southern zone on the matter, Gbagi, who is a governorship hope in Delta State in the 2023 general elections, disclosed that the zone is yet to take a position on it as the various caucuses of the zone are yet to meet on the matter.
‘‘The party has not agreed on any formula but the fact remains that when we come out of our various caucuses meeting next week we will be able to take decision on as its concerns our zone (South),’’ he said, adding that the broad divide is between south and north and that it is expected that what goes to the north will also go to the south later. ‘‘But given the peculiarity of where we find ourselves as a zone, the country believes that if we have a northern president now that it will be in the interest of the country for power to return to the south.
But we have not reached there yet,’’ he said. Ezeife said retaining of the national chairmanship of the party in the South is a sign that the South East geopolitical zone has been denied the opportunity of getting the presidential ticket of the party for the 2023 general elections.
To this end, Ezeife stated that Ndigbo has other political parties to use as platforms in the actualisation its ambition of producing the next president of the country. “If this is true we also have other political parties as plan B for the actualization of our ambition in the next general elections.
What the PDP has done is to deny us of this all important ambition of producing the candidate of the party and that means that the civil war is not over yet and the policy of reconciliation, rehabilitation, and reconstruction is on paper and not in action. “I urge my people to begin now to fashion out ways of achieving this goal through another party since the party formed by Ndigbo under the watch of late Vice President Alex Ekwueme cannot give us the ticket of the party.”