By Prisca Sam-Duru

TO most Nigerians, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP has not fully utilised its position as an opposition party to keep the ruling All Progressive Congress, APC, on its toes. Its situation has been made worse by  defections and deepening internal crisis which many view as signal of the party’s failure at the next general elections in 2023. 

One man who does not believe in that school of thought is former National Chairman of PDP, and former governor of Enugu state, Dr Okwesilieze Nwodo. Dr Nwodo believes his party has the capability to put its house in order and wrestle power back from APC.  

He was on Arise TV  where he spoke on his party’s plan towards ensuring victory in 2023 and other issues bedevilling the polity.Dr Nwodo insisted that the PDP has almost put the crisis in the party behind them “because the leadership of the party, the board of trustees, National Assembly forum and the stakeholders of the party met and took decisions to put the interest of the party over and above other interests and in doing so, we decided to have an early convention in October 30 and 31st” which has been approved by the national Executive Committee of the party. According to him, as a way forward, various interest groups in the party, are making their views known. 
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“There is a group that will like us to repeat the zoning of 2019, in which we had a Southern Chairman with presidency zoned to the North” while there’s a consensus in another group which believes that irrespective of party; PDP or APC, that presidency should rotate between the north and south and since incumbent president, comes from the North, the next president should come from the South. The Governors he disclosed, articulated this to guide the two political parties in their zoning. 

Not oblivious of the position of the South east which feels it’s time for it to produce the next president of the country, Dr Nwodo added, “Also we are aware of the agitation from the south east and it is built on fairness, justice and history and I think they have a strong argument to have the presidency zoned to the south east and I tell you how powerful that persuasion is. “Today is Monday, if you go to the South East, you will not see any traffic,  human or vehicular; the whole place is shut down and this is the sentiment that is dominant in that region as we speak. 

And they are making this passionate appeal to be allowed to reunite Nigeria, to bring back justice, peace and equity in our country. And that feeling is very strong. “So if any party decides to abandon the wishes of southern Nigeria, and indeed majority of the states in the Middle Belt, and refuse to zone the presidency to the south, they’ll be playing a very high stake. 

If APC and PDP are listening, they’ll generally like to zone their presidency to the south and this is a major feeling in the PDP”. He however posited that the best thing is for PDP to choose their chairman on the basis of who is qualified to lead the party to victory in 2023. “And wherever we find that person, we zone the chairman to that place because it’s important for us to win.

 There’s a school of thought that at worst, we throw the presidential ticket open; let us also as an opposition party go for our best candidate who can challenge the incumbent government”. What’s more important he believes is the strategy the party will use to win election, but if any of the political parties zones its presidential candidates to the north, they stand to engage in a difficult campaign. “I won’t be surprised APC does because they have a tradition of disobeying anything that is the law or norm. In recent times, we’ve seen them disobey court judgment not to hold local government congress, etc, the most worrisome was the stand they took on transmission of election results. I think the stand of APC clearly shows a party that cannot face a disciplined transparent free and fair elections and it’s positioning itself for what it’s used to doing, which is rigging elections.”If they continue in their impunity and decide that after eight years of a northern president they’ll continue with another eight years of northern president well, they will put PDP in a very difficult position as an opposition party… And they will go ahead and continue to perpetuate leadership to the north. That may persuade PDP to go to the north for a candidate”. Consequently, the most important thing for Dr Nwodo and his party at the moment is to listen to the voice of the people. “We cannot continue to run the country ignoring what our people want and at the same time expecting the country to be united and progressive. If you jettison the electronic transmission of results, you continue to perpetuate the leadership from one part of the country and you expect acquiescence from people who say it is not right. I think you’re just making governance difficult.  

Therefore, I think that we need to listen to voices of our people in taking strategic decisions of this nature to carry them along and reunite the country which unfortunately has not been so badly disunited as we have it at this time”. Dismissing the current defections and crisis in his party as signs of a crumbling party, Dr Nwodo noted that the PDP as a party has capacity to solve its problems adding that “PDP is extremely conscious of the fact that we have the worst government Nigeria has ever had since independence. 

“If you swear an oath to lead a country, the first thing is preservation of lives and property..this government has failed woefully, it’s there in the public domain. “Looking at things from point of unemployment, poverty, economy, it has never been so bad. It is extremely important that we give the Nigerian people an alternative. We can’t leave them with one alternative that will continue till next four years. We will do everything humanly possible, all compromises must be met to reunite the party and restore confidence of the people in the party. We will work round the clock to turn things around for the people.”Millions of Nigerians are in severe pain in all ramifications of their lives, they need an alternative”, he intoned.When asked why he thinks that presidency should be zoned to the South east, he said emphatically that “A South east presidential candidate or president of Nigeria of South East extraction will bring unity… they are the cement that hold this country together. They have sacrificed blood, property and everything for the unity of this country, a south east president will definitely reunite Nigeria”. Most importantly, Dr Nwodo stated, “The president from the South east is bringing to the table, the economic endowment of the people of the south east. I believe the most critical problem in Nigeria today apart from insecurity is economy. And I expect a south east president to really work on the economy of this country. Asked whether he believes in the idea of Biafra he said, “I advice the government to listen to the message of the Agitators,… majority of us in the South east believe in one Nigeria but if you listen to the message of agitators of Biafra, it is extremely difficult to convince them about one Nigeria that has manifestly been unfair to them”.