Ahead of the 2023 general elections, the South East Revival Group (SERG) on Friday strongly cautioned the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) “not to follow the footsteps of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to make the party northern affairs just like the President Muhammadu Buhari administration.”
In a statement signed by its President and National Coordinator, Chief Willy Ezugwu, SERG said that “since the presidential primary, where South East was deliberately denied the opportunity to produce its presidential candidate, the PDP is carrying on with the preparation for 2023 electioneering campaign as if the South, especially South Eastern Nigeria, does not matter.”
It said, “After denying the Igbos well deserved presidential ticket as well as the position of the running mate to its presidential candidate, it will not be out of place for the South East in particular to produce the national chairman of the PDP.
“We hereby vehemently reject the position of the chairman of the PDP Board of Trustees (BoT) given to the South East.
“For us, therefore, denying Igbos all the decision-making positions in the PDP at this critical time is the most insensitive action of the party if it jettisons the long loyalty of the people of South East to the party since 1999.
“The SERG is fully aligned with the position of the PDP leaders in the South that it is PDP national chairmanship position for South. Otherwise, Igbos will unanimously look elsewhere, knowing that the PDP has opted to tow the path of nepotism and hatred charted against the South East by the ruling APC.
“We strongly warn the PDP not to emulate the APC’s neglect of the Igbos in key party appointments ahead of the 2023 general elections.
“And trivialising the agitation by Southern Nigeria, especially the South East, for justice in sharing party positions in the PDP will certainly attract commensurate response from the people of Southern Nigeria in the 2023 general elections.
“For us, Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State and other southern leaders of the PDP are right in insisting that the national chairmanship of the party must return to the South ahead of the 2023 presidential election.
“The situation is even more insulting for Southern Nigeria, from the conversations so far, as it has become very obvious that both the presidential candidate of the PDP, Atiku Abubakar, and the National Chairman of the party, Iyorchia Ayu, are not ready to honour their own words to the effect that if the North produces the Presidential candidate of the party, the PDP chairmanship position will go to the South.”
“The question now is: if before the general election, these PDP leaders are not ready to honour their own words, how can they be trusted to do the right thing after the PDP has won the presidential election?” the SERG queried.