A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Osita Okechukwu, has warned the African Democratic Congress (ADC) to learn a lesson from the rejection of the Tanimu Turaki-led National Working Committee (NWC) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Speaking to newsmen in Abuja, the former Director General of the Voice of Nigeria (VON) described the INEC rejection of Turaki’s faction of the PDP as “karma finally taken home.”
He warned the ADC not to blame the APC if it faces the consequences of violating the rotation convention.
He said: “I hope that when ADC in 2027 plunge into the power gluttony temptation of breaching the rotation convention of not allowing the South to complete the traditional eight years in Aso Villa, they will neither blame President Tinubu nor APC for imposing One Party System in Nigeria. It will amount to boarding a vehicle tagged, No Refund after Payment.”
Okechukwu recalled persistent warnings to Ndigbo against putting all their political eggs in one basket, the PDP, dating back to the 1999 presidential election, when the party denied its founder and former Vice President, Dr. Alex Ekwueme, the presidential ticket.
He also cited subsequent elections in 2003 and 2007, when Rt. Hon. Chuba Okadigbo and Rt. Hon. Edwin Umezoke were fielded as presidential candidates, as well as the 2011 and 2019 presidential elections.
“It is my candid view that ADC will suffer the same fate as the PDP, especially when ADC is on the same trajectory of breaching the rotation convention based on the false assumption that the northern electorate are in a dormitory to be hauled to the polling booth to vote for His Excellency, Atiku Abubakar.
“I am at a loss why ADC’s leadership is assuming that the sophisticated northern electorate will bequeath them 12 million votes, when they are on the consensus platform that the rotation convention guarantees inclusion, equity and a sense of belonging,” Okechukwu added.
Okechukwu stressed that Nigeria’s Fourth Republic was deeply anchored on the zoning rotation convention as the glue for national unity in a fragile and polarised polity.
“Its violent breach will implode the ADC, as it is the fundamental reason why the PDP is today engulfed in turmoil,” he warned.