Jonathan’s former aide, Okupe, says PDP will self-destruct, if…

Former aide to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, Doyin Okupe, says the main opposition party in Nigeria, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is on the path of implosion and self-destruct if it refuses to zone its presidential ticket to the south.

Okupe, in a series of tweets on Friday, said the party would cease to exist after 2023 if it refuses to heed to the clamour by many Nigerians to zone its presidential ticket.

According to Okupe, the party’s reluctance in declaring its stance on zoning of its presidential ticket is not a good omen, adding that since parties don’t select candidates from the same religion for their presidential and vice-presidential tickets, it would be wrong for a northerner to take over power from President Muhammadu Buhari in 2023.

“Perfidy is the word. Dishonesty, injustice and insensitivity are the hallmarks of the current attitude of the PDP towards its own established policy of fairness and its celebrated mantra for equity and justice in the sharing of political offices through zoning between the north and the south of the country,” Okupe wrote.

Read also: Okupe implores Nigerian govt to release IPOB leader, Kanu, for peace in South-East

“This zoning policy had guaranteed stability and entrenched sense of belonging and equity within our polity.

“The efficacy of the zoning principle is so self evident that even rival political parties have adopted it as a political tool to ensure fairness and justice among their own membership.

“For the avoidance of doubt, if Muslim/Muslim or Christian/Christian presidential tickets will not work in Nigeria, so will a northern president from any party, following an uninterrupted 8-year rule by the current president, not work in 2023.

“But if the PDP, based on any presumptive consideration, chooses the perilous and clearly unjust and inequitable path of throwing the presidential ticket at its primaries open to all zones, then the PDP will finally, through an unforced error, have activated a self-destruct political app and would have commenced an irreversible journey to perdition,” the PDP stalwart said.

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