Andy Esiet, Calabar
A Chieftain of the People’s Democratic Party(PDP) has predicted doom for the party if it zones the 2023 governorship ticket to Central Senatorial district of the state.
The three senatorial zones starting from the South in 1999, Central 1993 and 2007 and North currently in power have produced governors in rotation and it is expected that the South should take the next turn in 2023 after waiting for other zones to take their turns.
Senator Sandy Onor, from Central Senatorial district, on Tuesday at the PDP party secretariat declared to contest the 2023 governorship elections in the PDP despite zoning insisting that all the zones have taken their turn so the rotation today can start from anywhere.
Worried with this development, the Director General of Gershom Bassey Campaign Organization, Mr Ekpo Ada, yesterday stated that Onor’s declaration will spell doom for the party, especially for the southern Senatorial District,as the party is already losing key members to other parties due to perceived injustice.
He cited the recent defection of Mr Edem Ekong and Etubom.Bassey Eyo Ndem to the All Progressives Congress (APC) as signal that the PDP in the state may be gradually at the brink of disintegration.
Ada,warned that “if the PDP does not come out strong within the next one month to state its position on power rotation and zoning, the consequences on the party may become disastrous”.
Ada recalled that in 2015, the state PDP Caucus,which is the highest decision making body of the party, of which Arch. Bassey Ndem was a member then, agreed that power will return to the Southern Senatorial District in 2023 in line with the zoning policy of the party for equity, fairness and Justice and wandered why the party is delaying in taking a position on zoning of power to the South.
He declared that, “if the PDP does not put its house in order forthwith by streamlining party members aspirations, the party may be heading for a total rejection in the southern senatorial district which turn it is to produce the next Governor of the state, come 2023” .
He maintained that “the southern senatorial district will only support parties that zone power to the south and nothing less, adding that Cross River cannot be an exception as other states in the country have embraced zoning as a workable policy to achieve peace, equity and political stability” .
Ada warned the PDP in the state to avert mass defection as the south is irrevocably committed to power shift to the south, come 2023
It would be recalled that Distinguished Senator Gershom Bassey,who is the leader of the Cross River Caucus of the PDP at the National Assembly, had declared that it is the turn of the South to produce the next Governor in 2023 based on existing arrangement in the state since 1999.
However he maintained that he was ready and prepared to contest for the PDP ticket with anybody from any zone and that he is also ready to match money for money, if it comes to that because the interest of the southern zone cannot be rubbished by anybody no matter how highly placed as the decision on who becomes the Governor of Cross River State in 2023 cannot be determined by external forces.
