- Says Atiku may not fair well in South-South zone
BY EDMOND ODOK – Former Minister of Aviation and chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Osita Chidoka said it is politically unwise for the South-East geo-political zone to abandon its 24 years of investment in the main opposition Party overnight.
This is as he also explained that the February 25 presidential election will be determined by votes from the North-West and the North-East regions of the country with the South-East and the South-South votes not really making the much-desired impact on the poll.
Speaking on a Channels Television programme, Sunday Politics, Chidoka said though the Ndigbos have invested so much in the PDP to have been denied the 2023 presidential ticket, the region’s “significant investment in the PDP for 24 years cannot also be thrown away overnight”.
Chidoka, who noted that while coasting home to victory in the 2015 and 2019 elections, President Muhammadu Buhari did not win in any of the states in either the South-South or South-East region, said the political permutations still favour a strong battle between the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the PDP as the Labour Party (LP) presidential candidate, Peter Obi may not win the election.
The former Minister however acknowledged that recent developments with the country’s main opposition party indicate that the PDP standard bearer, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar may falter in the South-East and the South-South, saying; “Buhari has been president without winning those two regions. And that is what is going to happen in the forthcoming election.”
According to him; “PDP is going to get considering vote in Oyo, Osun, Ekiti, Anambra, Imo, Abia. We are going to come second. Whoever does well in the North-West and North-East will win the presidential election. What will happen is that the APC is talking about this presidency by the virtue of the fact that they have structures and they are in power.”
On Peter Obi’s emergence as a political force in the 2023 calculations, Chidoka said; “Peter Obi is a significant player in the game, though this election is between the PDP and the APC. Peter Obi’s emergence is the challenge we have in Igbo land. There are two opinions in Igbo land. One is that we can go with the Third Force to win the presidency. And I think that is a valid argument.”
However, Chidoka, who was the Corps Marshall of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) under President Olusegun Obasanjo, further said; “I am of the opinion that the structure of the two major parties (APC/PDP) offers all the ethnic groups the opportunity of winning the presidency. Once you get the ticket of any of those parties, your pathway to becoming the president of the country is clearer.
“The reason I am of that considered view is that if you look at the considerable investment of the Southeast in the PDP, we are the owners of the PDP. We have given 80 per cent of the vote. Now, PDP did not give us the ticket for 2023, I don’t think it is enough reason to throw away that significant investment.
“So, those who said our best bet was to go out of the PDP and align forces with others to get the presidency may have a better argument in that. And I can say that Obi is doing a great job at that. He is mobilising people across Nigeria. But I don’t think that is the Igbo position.”
“For me, the Igbo position is that our significant investment in the PDP for 24 years cannot be thrown away overnight”.
Admitting that the Labour Party flag bearer has made a successful inroad into the nation’s political space and also gotten significant followership, which he can activate in the near future”, the PDP Chieftain posited; “The Igbo’s president is around the corner”.
