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Politics of Friday, 13 January 2023

Source: www.premiumtimesng.com

2023: PDP BoT member resigns from party

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Alphonsus Nwosu, a member of the Board of Trustees (BoT) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has resigned from the party.

Mr Nwosu, in a letter dated 12 January, said his resignation was because of the inability of the PDP to adhere to its rotation of presidency as provided for in the party’s constitution.

“This resignation for me is a matter of conscience and principle,” Mr Nwosu said.

The letter, which was addressed to the National Chairman of the PDP, Iyorchia Ayu, and seen by PREMIUM TIMES, was copied to the party’s BoT Chairman, Adolphus Nwabara and the party’s chairman in Mr Nwosu’s ward.

“The journey to the rotational presidency between the north and south of Nigeria has been a long and arduous one and I have been involved.

“Nigeria and the PDP must learn to keep to an agreement reached by a constituent assembly (1995) and enshrined in the PDP’s constitution (1998),” he added.

Mr Nwosu, a professor, served as Nigeria’s minister of health during the administration of President Olusegun Obasanjo, between 1999 and 2007.

The former PDP member did not indicate in his letter if he was joining another political party.

Mr Nwosu hails from Otolo, a community in the Nnewi North Local Government Area of Anambra State, South-east Nigeria.

Background

There have been calls from several leaders from southern Nigeria that the presidency should be zoned to the region given that northern Nigeria, in 2015, produced Muhammadu Buhari, the incumbent president.

Mr Buhari, a member of the ruling All Progressives Congress, hails from Katsina State, in northern Nigeria.

He will exit the office on 29 May after his second term.

The PDP, which is the main opposition party and one of the two dominant political parties in Nigeria, picked its presidential candidate outside the region.

Atiku Abubakar, a former vice-president of Nigeria, won the party’s primary in May.

Atiku hails from Adamawa, another state in northern Nigeria.

His emergence as the presidential candidate of the PDP has been criticised by several party members from southern Nigeria.

The party members from the south believe that it is improper for the party to ignore its existing zoning arrangement which favours the region to produce a president in 2023.