ULOKA CHUKWUBUIKEM
In 2015, the South East had three (3) PDP Governors and two (2) APGA governors before Owelle Rochas Okorocha left to join APC. With the above governors in control of their states, the region supported Goodluck Jonathan as one Igbo son vying for the Presidency.
The entire South East was delivered to Jonathan, with Anambra scoring above six hundred thousand votes. In the end, he lost the election to Muhammadu Buhari and the APC.
Our votes from the South East and that of the South South, despite not being BVAS accredited, were not enough to save Jonathan.
Today, the realities have changed: the Labour Party, which the few Igbos claim to have adopted, doesn’t have any governors in the South East nor anywhere else; out of the 1,500 possible national and state assembly seats in the country, they fielded only 19% of the candidates; and these paucity candidates were rejected by other political parties before they joined Labour Party. Beyond the South East, the Labour Party is not popular anywhere else and cannot boast of winning local seats in any of the three geopolitical zones of the North as they do not have candidates in those areas where the majority of voters are domiciled. In the South West and South South, Labour Party is basking on social media euphoria, leaving behind the identity politics constant with our democracy.
It now baffles me as to how our few votes (not as much as they were in 2015 due to BVAS and insecurity), in the South East would be enough to do the magic for Peter Obi to go beyond Lokoja, let alone going to Aso Rock in 2023 as President-elect.
Ndigbo and the South East, we must do our pluses and minuses to arrive at a desired destination; the lessons of the past should be enough for the voice of reason to prevail.
Emotions and sentiment will only afflict us. We have suffered a lot of political deprivation due to our lack of strategic alliance; we cannot continue in the political wilderness.
It is preferable to make sacrifices with the same votes and forge an alliance with the North by supporting Atiku Abubakar and running for President in exchange, rather than capitulating to throwing our votes away as we did in 2015.
Throwing our votes away for Peter Obi will only destroy our little chance of getting hold of the Presidency after the terms of Atiku Abubakar. In 2023, Peter’s aspiration is still unattainable. We must tell ourselves the truth.
The popular demand today across Nigeria is Atiku-Okowa, ndigbo must capitalize on the inevitability of PDP victory in 2023.
#ulokachukwubuikem