A political affairs analyst, Majeed Dahiru, has attributed the Peoples Democratic Party’s, PDP, loss of influence in the South East to the party’s failure to zone its 2023 presidential ticket to the region.
Dahiru spoke on Tuesday while fielding questions on Arise Television’s news programme.
According to him, the PDP’s decision to abandon zoning was a “mortal sin” that alienated its strongest support base in the southern part of the country.
He explained that the South East, particularly Enugu State, had been a consistent and loyal base of the PDP since 1998 but was sidelined in major decisions, including the 2023 presidential ticket.
According to him, “The violation of zoning in the PDP was like a mortal sin that the party committed, and when it did that, the wage of sin became death. The southern part of this country had been the life blood, the oxygen that kept the PDP afloat after it fell from power in 2015.”
Dahiru recalled that before the 2022 presidential primaries, he had cautioned the PDP against throwing open its ticket, warning that the move would weaken the party’s southern base.
He noted that the PDP missed a historic opportunity to regain national balance when it failed to field Peter Obi, whom he described as a “phenomenally popular” figure who “ticked all the boxes.”
Dahiru said: "Well politically when you belong to the ruling party, you have access to the President. You belong to the national caucus of the ruling party.
“Perhaps there could be some interpersonal relationship between the President and some of the governors within his party that sometimes could smoothen a certain kind of relationship between states and the federal government.
"But that as an aside, before he talked about a connection to the center, he said something about the South East Enugu specifically, being a very loyal and consistent support base for the PDP since 1998 and that at the end of the day their voices were not heard, the party cannot disregard the region, that forms part of the reasons why he and some other people from that region are actually leaving into the ruling APC.
"I think that, for me, is the most important reason why the PDP has lost influence, not just in the south too, but across the southern part of this country.
“In the prelude to the 2022 presidential primaries of the PDP, I had written extensively, well circulated work, well publicized opinion articles where we cautioned the PDP against the idea of jettisoning zoning of the presidency to the south by 2023 by leaving open its contestation for the presidency because of the vulnerability factor, which saw Atiku Abubakar taking the ticket of the PDP.
“We had wondered if the PDP does not zone to the south, and specifically to the southeast, that the party was going to run into troubled waters and sink into oblivion in the post Buhari era, and that seems to be happening.
"So the crisis hitting the PDP today is simply a symptom of a deeper ailment. You see, the violation of zoning in the PDP was like a mortal sin that the PDP committed, and when he did that, of course, you know, the good book says the wage of sin is death.
“The southern part of this country has been the most consistent support base for the PDP, especially when it fell from power in 2015. The South particularly was like the life blood, the oxygen that kept the PDP afloat at a time when there was a strong agitation.
"I mean, 17 Southern Governors met in Asaba to say, look, we want the President to shift to the south.
“Expectedly, the APC is made up of an alliance between the North and the Southwest, led by the current president, who was then the leader of the opposition, but the PDP is an alliance between some sections of the north and the south side, and especially the south east.
“So one would have expected that while the APC will gravitate towards the south west, coming to the south, the PDP should have gravitated towards the south. People like Atiku Abubakar and others from the North should have mobilized support towards the south east.
"And in this instance, the party was so fortunate that they had a candidate, or is actually an aspirant, a figure then in the PDP, who was so phenomenally popular ahead of even the presidential primaries that everybody's taught common sense he ticks all the boxes.
“He's from the right part of the country. He has the qualities that have been able to galvanize such a level of ownership before Nigerian politics, and I'm talking about Peter Obi. They lost that chance, and they lost the South East in the process.
"Look, you will be looking at Governor Mbah decamping today, let me tell you something. Anambra state, which used to be a hotbed of PDP politics, had its governorship primaries some months ago.
“Nobody, not one single individual, picked the form to contest for the primaries on the platform of the PDP."
