Politics
PDP And Reward For The South- South
Some of the delicate issues that the main opposition party in the country, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), will have to wisely resolve as it makes efforts to dethrone the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in the forthcoming 2023 general election came to the fore earlier this week.
The first one came on Monday from Uyo, capital of Akwa Ibom State, where the South-South stakeholders of the PDP held their meeting.
Addressing the august gathering, the Governor of Rivers State, Chief Nyesom Wike, was reported to have demanded a just, fair and equitable treatment that is commensurate with the South-South geo-political zone’s contributions to the survival, sustenance, stability and considerable success of the party as it distributes positions, and dispenses favours in the run-up to the 2023 election season.
“ The South-South is the pillar of the PDP. If the South-South is the pillar of the PDP, they must be treated with fairness, justice and equity. It is not only when it comes to work, it is not only when it comes to giving votes that we will all remember that the South-South is the pillar. When it also comes to sharing dividends of democracy, they should remember that this is the pillar of the party, ’ ’Governor Wike was quoted to have said.
To this end, the report said Governor Wike charged his counterpart governors, national and state legislators and other critical stakeholders in the zone to close ranks and be united in purpose towards achieving success for the party in the coming polls.
Just the following day, Tuesday, March 21, 2022, the Governor of Sokoto State, Aminu Tambuwal, in what some have interpreted as a direct reaction to the demand by Governor Wike, was quoted to have said that the South-South is not in a position to win the Presidency for the PDP.
According to reports, Tambuwal made the assertion when he met with former presiding officrs of state Houses of Assembly and the House of Representatives in Abuja in the course of his consultation with stakeholder groups ahead of his official declaration to run for the office of President in 2023.
When emphasising the need for the party to work towards winning the elections, especially the presidency, Tambuwal is reported to have said that’ ‘‘Yes, we can share tickets and everybody can take his piece and go to his zone but you must plan to win the election. That’s the reality of it.
“ So, we must accept these realities as a party and work with these realities to win the election. After that, we can now say okay, let’s share power. Win the election first. Don’t win zoning! Win the election and then we’ll come and share power.’’
He is quoted to have requested the PDP to be strategic in its quest for upstaging the APC at the centre by jettisoning its zoning arrangement, especially as it affects the number one political office of the land, expressing the view that because the APC has ceded its presidential ticket to the southern part of the country, the PDP should go the opposite direction to stand a strong chance.
Reacting to the development, some members of the PDP in Port Harcourt told The Tide that the stance of the Sokoto State governor was not only insensitive but selfish and self-servicing and does not encourage sacrifice, loyalty, faithfulness and commitment to the party. “The statement of the Sokoto State Governor, Aminu Tambuwal, is completely out of place,” Barr. Chimenem Wodi said, adding that the position of the former Speaker of the House of Representatives was aimed at furthering his personal interest as an aspirant for the ticket of the party.
He said in the history of elections in the country, the South-South had never been undermined and the North could not win any election in Nigeria without support from the South-South, pointing out that even in 2015, the APC had substantial assistance from South-South to emerge victorious.
While dismissing Tambuwal as one that is only testing the water, the PDP stalwart in Obio/Akpor Local Government Area of Rivers State said he could not be taken in by Tambuwal’s argument even viewed against the background that since former President Goodluck Jonathan only just left the office in 2015, it may be difficult to make Nigeria accept another person from the region so soon.
He said the fact that Jonathan spent only six years in office should make other regions concede the position to the South-South for it to be considered as having fully taken his share.
More than this, the party faithful emphasised that the only fitting position for the South-South region of the PDP, going into the 2023 general elections is the presidential ticket of the party, insisting that nothing short of that would adequately compensate the region for what it has given to keep the party alive and well.
“ After they lost power in 2015, the PDP was headed towards oblivion and we saw a lot of discordant and discomfiting rumblings at the national level.
“ In fact, at that time, we never heard about some of the “mighty men’ that are now parading themselves as presidential aspirants.
The likes of Atiku Abubakar, at some point, were not in the picture. However, one person stood out and became the rallying point towards the resuscitation of the party. The South-South region became a Mecca of sort and all the mighty men’ were trooping here for strength.
“ For instance, we saw the Governor of Rivers State taking it upon himself the burden to resolve all the major rifts in the party. The South-South clearly took the lead and the initiative to give the party a change to live.
“ I think it is on the strength of this that Governor Wike is saying that we should be rewarded according to what we have done for the party and you can not fault him on that,’’ he said.
“What would be a fair deal is for the South-South to be compensated with the presidential ticket of the party while other offices should be shared in a way that will give every other region a sense of belonging and inclusion so that the PDP can return to power and rescue Nigeria and Nigerians from the misrule of the APC,’’ he submitted.
In his reaction, Mr Reuben Izu (Jnr) said Tambuwal’s statement should not be taken seriously because any credible Nigerian from any part of the country can be President if he or she enjoys the overwhelming support of a political party that has the spread, presence and confidence of the majority of the voting population.
“ If he says that no one from the South-South can win, I can tell him as well that no one from any other part of the country can win.
Irrespective of where a candidate comes from, with support from other regions, he can win,’’ he said, adding that he will agree with the Sokoto State chief executive if his argument is that zoning the slot to any particular region may hamper the chances of the party to win without proper planning.
“ It is unfortunate that he had to single out the South-South for mention but there is no denying the fact that majority opinion within the party is that the presidential ticket of the PDP should be ceded to the Southern part of the country. And in the light of that, I will strongly advise that the party heeds the majority view while the choice of which part of the South the candidate should emerge from be left for the Southern caucuso determine based on where they could get the most credible, capable and acceptable candidate,’’ he argued.
According to the Ahoada West Local Government Area-born politician, Governor Wike did not exaggerate when he intoned that the power base of the PDP is the South and the strength of the party in the South is the South-South. Zoning the presidential ticket to the South- South therefore will not be a bad idea’’.
He expressed the confidence that the current seemingly divergent positions being canvassed by chieftains of the PDP on the subject matter is not sufficient to shift their focus on the ultimate goal of winning the presidential election next year, adding that ‘‘the fact Nigerians want the PDP back in power is obvious for the blind to see and loud enough for the deaf to hear.’’
He said, “A man who chased away his wife and took another in but realised soon after that the second is not as good as the first would readily and hurriedly go and take back his first wife with apologies. That is the situation in Nigeria,’’ stressing that all that is needed for the PDP to climb back to power is ‘‘to make Nigerians understand that we are coming with sincerity and determination to effect a positive change in their currently deplorable socio-economic conditions. Right now, we are asking Nigerians to give us a second chance so that we can correct the mistakes of the past.’’
With heavyweights like Atiku Abubakar already bought their interest and nomination forms and officially and publicly posted their ambitions, the PDP does not appear likely to come out with an effective zoning arrangement.
However, it will not be too difficult for the party to avoid an implosion and forge a commiment for the most coveted political seat in the country in 2023.
By: Opaka Dokubo
Prof. Amupitan gave the warning on Saturday, in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, during the South-South Zonal Readiness Assessment and Interactive Staff Engagement organised ahead of the 2027 general elections.
He said insecurity remained a potential challenge to the electoral process but stressed that the Commission would not allow threats against its personnel to undermine its constitutional responsibilities.
“Insecurity may pose a challenge, but our collective constitutional resolve is far stronger. Let me again send a clear message from Port Harcourt: anyone who attempts to threaten, intimidate, or harm our ad-hoc staff, NYSC members, or permanent personnel will be brought to justice under the full weight of the law,” he said.
The INEC Chairman, who was accompanied by National Commissioners, directors and technical aides, disclosed that the South-South engagement was the fifth in a series of zonal assessments, following similar exercises in the South-West, North-West, South-East and North-East.
He explained that his physical presence across the geopolitical zones reflected the Commission’s field-first approach, emphasising that electoral integrity must be established through effective operations at the grassroots.
According to him, the assessment would cover operational preparedness across the 123 Local Government Areas in the six South-South states.
On election security, Prof. Amupitan said INEC had moved away from reactive security arrangements traditionally activated around election day to a proactive, intelligence-driven framework known as the “ICCES Tentacle”.
He explained that the framework was designed to extend inter-agency security coordination from national and state headquarters to local government areas and Registration Area Centres, including remote communities.
He identified three critical pillars of the framework as mapping and mitigating security threats, protecting electoral personnel and infrastructure, and guaranteeing safe access to polling units.
The INEC boss said the security arrangement would provide comprehensive protection for electoral personnel, technological infrastructure, including Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) devices and server infrastructure, as well as voters.
He added that the framework was intended to ensure that every polling unit, irrespective of its geographical location or history of security challenges, remained safe and accessible for the exercise of democratic rights.
Prof. Amupitan disclosed that the South-South security architecture comprised approximately 60 major operational formations, headquarters and state commands operating under the Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security (ICCES).
The network, he said, brings together military, naval, air, police and other security and intelligence agencies across the six states.
“Together, this integrated multi-agency network represents the operational backbone that guarantees intelligence-led protection across every riverine creek, coastal axis, and land-based polling unit in the Niger Delta,” he stated.
Providing an overview of the region’s electoral significance, the INEC Chairman said the South-South had the fourth-largest voting bloc in the country, with 15,823,550 registered voters, representing 15.30 per cent of the national register.
Rivers State alone, he said, accounts for 3,736,434 registered voters spread across the 23 local government areas.
Alhaji Abubakar made the demand following revelations that some INEC registration officers allegedly abused their access to the voter registration system to introduce irregular records into the database.
In a statement issued by his Director of Strategic Communications, Mr Phrank Shaibu, the former vice-president described the development as a serious breach of the Commission’s internal safeguards and raised concerns about the integrity of the electoral process.
He urged INEC to identify the officials implicated in the alleged misconduct and explain what disciplinary or legal measures had been taken against them.
Alhaji Abubakar also called for an independent forensic audit of the preliminary voters’ register to establish the scale of the alleged manipulation, identify affected records and determine how the questionable entries were introduced into the system.
He further insisted that INEC preserve all relevant voter records, image files, system access logs and electronic audit trails to prevent the destruction or alteration of evidence before an independent examination could be conducted.
The former vice-president also demanded that the Commission disclose the identities of companies contracted to produce sensitive election materials ahead of the 2027 polls, arguing that transparency was essential to building public confidence in the electoral process.
INEC’s Director of Information and Communication Technology, Dr Lawrence Bayode, had earlier disclosed during a television interview that some registration officers across the country allegedly used their official login credentials to introduce irregularities into the voters’ database.
Dr Bayode explained that the Commission’s Automated Biometric Identification System helped identify questionable records and establish how some irregularities entered the system.
He, however, clarified that not all suspicious photographs were AI-generated, as some resulted from poor registration procedures.
The development followed public concerns over suspected AI-generated photographs, alleged duplicate entries and other inconsistencies discovered in the preliminary voters’ register published online on October 26, 2026.
INEC has maintained that the published document is a preliminary register and that it is reviewing questionable records ahead of the certification of the final Register of Voters.
The controversy has intensified calls for greater transparency and accountability in the management of the voters’ register as preparations gather momentum for the 2027 general elections.
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