Senator representing Abia South senatorial district, Enyinnaya Abaribe has asked the state chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party,PDP, not to take any action that will expose the party to defeat in the 2023 governorship election.
Abaribe, who stated this while featuring in a radio program in Aba, stated that party stakeholders were not consulted and caucus meeting held before the party zoned the governorship position to Abia Central and Abia North zones and described the action as a joke.
He tasked the party leadership in the state to learn from the bitter experiences of electoral defeats of the party in other states arising from imposition of unpopular candidates on the PDP.
“In his words; “While every part of the political system has improved, how can we now say we’ll sit in the same old pattern of doing things of going to bring somebody who’s not prepared to be our Governor.
“You have to bring people who are ready to serve. People who are prepared, not another reluctant person to force on Abians. What they did is a joke, how do you zone to two Senatorial Zone? It doesn’t happen.
“There was no caucus meeting, no consultation anywhere about all these. The time for all these types of things have passed. We’re now on the brink of a big change in Nigeria.
“At every point that people have tried this type of imposition against the will of the people, all they’ll get is loss to the opposition. We’ve advised the PDP, do not to go against your interest. The interest of PDP today, both national and state level is to win elections.
“I advised the party that they should not do anything that’ll lead PDP to defeat. Whenever you do something free, fair and transparent, nobody will complain. It’s the time that you try to manipulate that you lead yourself into problems. The party in the state has no such right to stop anybody from contesting.
“All that they’ve just tried to do is to stop Enyinnaya Abaribe and say that Abia South Senatorial Zone will not be part of what they’re doing and I’ve said to everyone who cares to know is that what they did is unconstitutional, against our party rules and against the goodwill of the people of Abia State and it’s a joke.
“I’m not against zoning. I agree with zoning but I’m only saying that rather than do geographical zoning which has not led us anywhere, rather than do clockwise and anti-clockwise zoning, so that you go and get somebody who’s not prepared for office, you should zone for competence, zone for integrity, capability and capacity.
“Since all parts of Abia has done the geographical zoning that has brought us to this sorry path where nobody is very happy with Abia at the moment, it’s time to zone with capacity and I’m the person with that capacity. So, I don’t have any problem with that.
The senator also reminded the party in the state that the electoral system has changed as INEC introduced technology which captures and transmits votes.
“When we started our political journey in 1999 when I was the Deputy Governor, every other thing has changed. Technology has improved, INEC has upped their game by making sure that they’ll bring machines that’ll capture votes and transmit them electronically.”
He tasked the party leadership in the state to learn from the bitter experiences of electoral defeats of the party in other states arising from imposition of unpopular candidates on the PDP.
“This type of thing they did in Abia now had happened in many other states and it made PDP lose those states. It happened in Benue, when the current Governor who later defected to PDP was frozen out. It happened in Niger and Plateau states , it was all about imposition. It happened in Bayelsa and we lost. It was by the grace of God that someone had a problem with his papers and we got that state back.
“You cannot go to a serious election with people who cannot win. We’re sounding a note of warning to PDP in the state; do not toy with the fortune of PDP in Abia. They must realize that there are machines now for election. We saw it in Anambra State, Edo State and others of recent. Nobody can rig an election and go somewhere to write results again. It’ll never happen again.
“What this means is that a party that wants to win will bring out not just a credible candidate but a popular candidate that can take every part of the state. Nobody can wait again and say they’ll do something behind. They’ll not do anything behind because time had made changes everywhere.
“Nobody is the Lord and Master to choose for us. If anybody like the way Abia is today and the person is comfortable with it, he or she has the right to continue to vote for people who are going to be part of that same type of status quo.
“If you don’t like it, if you want Abia to be like other states where our people are now running to stay, then you have to make a different choice.
“If you are saying there should be no contest, you’re simply supporting mediocrity. What we should have now is wherever you’re from in Abia, show your hand. Come out and then campaign and let the people of Abia who are delegates make their choices. We’re dealing in democracy. It’s all about choice. Let delegates reject me and I’ll respect their choice, but I’ll not respect the choice of anybody who’ll say I am an authority.”
