PDP Primaries: PDP chieftain advocates zoning to avert anarchy

By Correspondent in Warri.

A Chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party( PDP) in Delta State, Chief Abovi Hope Erute,has kicked against Peoples Democratic Party( PDP) using concensus method to pick its candidate for the presidential election come 2023.

He, therefore, called on the party stakeholders not to jettison zoning to avert” anarchy.”

Chief Erudite, who is also the President-General, Effurun community in the state,made the call in Warri on Monday, in a telephone interview with the Correspondent of The Reporters,an online publication.

He warned,”If you jettison zoning from the system, that is recipe for anarchy.”

According to him, the proscribed IPOB and yet to be proscribed MASSOB and the little people agitating here and there in the country indulged in agitation for separation, because they feel so much marginalised.

Chief Erute said it would be wrong to perceive all Igbos as bad people, just as it would be unfair to describe other other ethnic nationalities in the country as all bad.

The PDP chieftain argued that if the party adopts zoning in the selection of its presidential candidate during its primary election, an Igbo man should be picked for the election in the interest of social justice to arrest agitation and check the attendant crises, especially in South-East.

The president-general added that the Igbos would have a sense of belonging in the aspiration and development of a corporate entity called Nigeria and boost peace in the country.

“Presidency has been zoned to North and South not exactly on party line but by Nigerians. If the president has come from the North and served his term,then the next president should be allowed to come from the South and serve his term.

“The West has been there, South-South has been there,why not South-East. If we say that to keep Nigeria one is a task that must be done,then it must be done clearly.

The President-General also called on members of the political class to eschew a development whereby a section of the country would be deciding who becomes the president of Nigeria.

This he said became necessary to instil a sense of belonging and bring about the desired unity among the various ethnic nationalities as well as in the polical system of the country.

Our Correspondent gathered that the nature of primary election in PDP remains contentious as its members from North and South, especially those gunning for elective offices, are divided between zoning and concensus in the choice of who to contest for the general elections next year.

The pro concensus argue that their action is meant to prone down the 17 presidential candidates, while those for zoning maintain that such system will guarantee sense of belonging and unity in the polity of the nation.

A source in PDP told our correspondent that the party had tentatively fixed primaries for May 7, for the state Houses of Assembly, House of Representatives, May12,Senate,May 14 while that of the president had been scheduled for May 28 and 29,2022.

The Reporters reports that Alhaji Atiku Abubakar,Mr Peter Obi and the Governor of Rivers Governor, Ezenwa Nyesom Wike among others, have so far indicated intention to contest for the seat of president of Nigeria in 2023 election.

Edited by Dada Ahmed.