PDP urges Ndigbo not to believe APC promise that they will produce the next president after Buhari

NIGERIA'S main opposition the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has warned the southeast geo-political zone not to believe the promise of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) that it would be allowed to produce the next leader if its backs President Muhammadu Buhari.

Next year, Nigeria goes to the polls, with President Buhari seeking a second four-year term in office and some of his aides have asked the southeast to back him in exchange for being allowed to produce the next president in 2023. However, the PDP has warned Igbos that this may be a ruse just to get their votes and has asked them not to be taken for a ride.

President Buhari was conferred with the title of Ochioha NdiIgbo by the South East Traditional Council of Rulers led by Eze Eberechi Dick during a visit to Ebonyi State on November 14 last year. However, the PDP has attacked the presidency for failing to reciprocate the love shown to it by the people of the southeast, adding that the Buhari administration has done very little for the zone.

Also, the party challenged the APC to demonstrate its new found love for the southeast by ensuring the implementation of the 2014 confab report, which recommended the rotation of the presidency among Nigeria's six geo-political zones. PDP national publicity secretary Kola Ologbondiyan, said that if the ruling party is truly in support of the Igbo presidential aspiration, it should forward the Confab report to the National Assembly as an amendment to the 1999 constitution.

He added: “The southeast is a traditional stronghold of the PDP and the APC on realising this is coming up with all forms of gimmicks to garner the votes. Does the APC look like a party that believes in minority rights?

"If the APC believes in the minority rights, they should go and dust up the 2014 confab report and begin its implementation. The question surrounding the possibility of the southeast producing the president is answered in the 2014 confab report, so they should it take up and begin the implementation or forward it to the National Assembly, and allow lawmakers to make use of it in amending the relevant provisions of the 1999 constitution.”

Mr Ologbondiyan said that the southeast would continue to receive the attention of the PDP  arguing that if the south-south could produce the nation’s first citizen, there is no reason the why Ndigbo could not repeat the feat. he added that making a promise to the southeast is not necessary as their brothers in the region know that the PDP belongs to all Nigerians.