Igbo Corner
PDP zoning dilemma, a fatal self-inflicted injury ~ by Law Mefor
The chairman of the PDP zoning committee, Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State cut a pathetic sight while laboriously explaining the so-called unanimous decision of his committee on zoning. Ortom wanted the world to believe that his yeoman committee did not recommend that the PDP presidential ticket be thrown open. Ortom must have believed very much like Adolf Hitler that the intelligence of the Nigerian masses is very low.
Let us for a moment believe Ortom, the beleaguered governor of Benue state who has had a running battle with killer herdsmen that have attempted his life and that of predecessor at least once. Ortom’s predecessor, Gabriel Suswan, had told his survival story and his narrow escape. Ortom too nearly died but escaped by a whisker but his chief security officer, Chris Dega, who was a retired AIG of police, wasn’t so lucky. He died protecting Ortom.
One would not think God spared Ortom’s life for this kind of banal politics with future and survival of the Nigerian nation and her citizens, especially the endangered species called Benue people of Nigeria. It is expected to offer him more chances to stand in the gap to save his own people and the rest of the country. And since Nigeria is practising democracy, to be able to bring in the government capable of giving the country a much needed respite, the PDP have to rely on a winnable candidate for vote.
Going by the constitution of the PDP as amended in 2009, the question of the zoning committee should not have arisen in the first place since the party’s basic extant constitutional provision unambiguously stipulates that Northern and Southern aspirants cannot contest together in the same PDP presidential primary. Yet, the PDP has been selling presidential nomination forms to both northern and southern Nigerian aspirants only to make a bolt-face with the Ortom zoning committee. Who is fooling who?
The fact is: since power is in the North at the moment and would be up for determination in 2023, and bound to move South, the Ortom committee was utterly unnecessary and therefore a subterfuge. And the PDP’s ‘zoning with rotation’ is also expected to play out as a power-sharing principle that has been settled and augmenting the federal character principle that has been in place since 1999. This covers a broader field of distribution until some of the PDP spin doctors started to whittle it down and rubbish it, as they are trying again at the moment, regardless of the dire consequences that have always resulted each time.
For the avoidance of doubt, rotation and zoning principle was written into the PDP party’s constitution in 2009. Article 7(2c) of the PDP constitution states that: ‘In pursuance of the principle of equity, justice and fairness, the party shall adhere to the policy of rotation and zoning of party and public elective offices, and it shall be enforced by the appropriate executive committee at all levels.’
Since the office of the president of Nigeria and his vice are part and parcel of the political offices contemplated by the nation’s constitution and indivisible, the only way to logically and practically share the two is by rotating them between the North and South, and between the zones within the two divides namely, North and South.
Superfluous arguments by such PDP party members that the PDP has nothing to zone since the party is not in power at the center is obviously mischievous. The presidency of Nigeria is not a property of any political party and moves with election seasons. What the PDP and indeed all other political parties must do is to flow with its tide.
Its tidal nature is what prevails and not the argument of some party members that PDP can only zone when it is in power at the center. This clique pushing this nauseating position are invariably saying the PDP should retain its ticket in the North for 2023 since its last attempt with a northern candidate (Atiku) did not produce the desired result.
This argument is warped and incurably defective. Are its proponents saying that unless and until the PDP produces Nigeria’s president of Northern extraction that Southern Nigeria must wait? The poverty of this argument further buttresses the noble and patriotic position that political parties would have to move with the election circles and the dictates of the moment in keeping faith with the convention and federal character principle that power has to rotate between North and South Nigeria.
Those playing politics with this binding reality confronting the nation are only preoccupied with, and blindfolded by, power and greed. Some have also argued that PDP has to worry about winning power before thinking about zoning. Those who argue in a like manner argue amiss. PDP has always won power with around 60% of its votes coming from South-East and South-South Nigeria.
If this is statically correct, why is the party fidgeting about zoning power to the South and ultimately to the South-East, which have often delivered the PDP at the polls? Their presumption appears to be that the South-East in particular cannot win presidential election even though zoning as captured in the PDP Constitution expressly favours the zone (South-East).
If one may ask: where are the safe states of the PDP in the North? Atiku technically lost Adamawa, his own state in the 2019 presidential election. Though he won the state by a very slim majority, Buhari won 11 LGs while he (Atiku) won only 10. North-East and North-West are obviously core APC states and North-Central seems evenly split between the APC and the PDP. Question then is: if the South-East and South-South are denied the presidential ticket which even the party constitution has thrust that way, in the hope that somebody like Atiku would conjure a winning magic and the two core zones of the PDP in the South revolt? Will it not show at the polls in protest votes and give the APC easy victory?
What is more, PDP ought to discernibly know that the APC is lurking in the shadows to cash in on its fatal mistakes.
Since express mention of one thing is an express exclusion of another, the PDP should have followed its constitution and allowed rotation to go South. Even the national sentiment demands the same today. Instead, the party chose to set up an opaque committee to interpret what is already expressly provided. The PDP is swimming against the tide for throwing its presidential ticket open despite what its own constitution demands of it.
No matter how much cotton wool Ortom pulls over our eyes, the PDP presidential ticket is now open, no thanks to his nebulous committee. The farthest the NEC of the PDP would go in a feeble attempt to redeem the party from anarchy and doom would be to say that it is zoning South but cannot stop aspirants from other zones who have constitutional right to run. Once they come to that passé, it would dawn on everyone that the party indeed has thrown its presidential ticket open since Northern and Southern PDP aspirants will contest in the 2023 primaries against the spirit and letters of the PDP constitution. So, PDP, in its characteristic signature move, is zoning and not zoning at the same time.
The PDP is trying to dribble everyone again and may end up dribbling itself out of 2023 as happened in 2015. The party is also working on consensus as a seemingly smart measure to prevent an implosion. It may not save the PDP. What is right is PDP zoning to the South and micro-zoning to South-East since South-West (16 years) and South-South (8 years) have both produced president and vice, South-East producing none, not just in the last 23 years but since the end of the civil war.
The South-East is patiently waiting to see where the rigmarole would end and to meet each of the two major political parties at the polls for a deserved recompense. The day of reckoning is already upon them and history has a way of repeating itself.
Dr. Law Mefor is an Abuja based Forensic/Social Psychologist and Journalist; email: drlawmefor@gamil.com; Tel.: +234-905 642 4375; tweet: @LawMefor1.
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There’s something about persecution that does two things to a people: it either breaks them, or it makes them beasts of survival.
For centuries the Jews… they were hunted, hated, and humiliated by empires. But they didn’t vanish.
They evolved. They adapted. And today, the Jews are arguably the most powerful tribe in the world economically, intellectually, and politically. Ruthless when necessary.
They are unapologetic about their survival. Now, look at the Igbo. A tribe known for industry, resilience, and brilliance.
A people who just want to live, do business, and thrive. But Nigeria doesn’t want that. Nigeria wants control.
Nigeria wants submission. And the one thing the Igbo have never known how to do is bow. And that’s the real issue.
So what does Nigeria do? It sidelines them. Isolates them. Provokes them. Bombs their villages under the guise of security.
Locks up their agitators. Shuts down their businesses. Mocks their pain. Ignores their history. Prevent them from voting. Play politics with their education. Sponsored bigotry on them.
And then Nigeria pretends to be surprised that there’s growing radicalization in the East?
Let me be clear: The Igbo didn’t start this fire. Nigeria did.
And history, the very same history we keep refusing to learn from, has shown us that when you keep pushing a tribe that knows how to survive, they evolve into something stronger, something unstoppable.
It’s happened before. With the Jews. Europe tried to exterminate them. Instead, they became the backbone of global finance, media, tech, and diplomacy.
You don’t touch a Jew today without consequences. You don’t push them to the wall and expect them to stay quiet.
Now Nigeria is doing the same to the Igbo, pushing, prodding, provoking.
But here’s the warning: when you push an animal to the wall, it doesn’t stay calm. It fights back. It bites. And this time, when it bites, don’t act shocked.
But this isn’t just about the Igbo solely. Nigeria has perfected the art of creating monsters, then acting surprised when they bite.
The Niger Delta? Radicalized. The region was exploited for oil, polluted beyond repair, and ignored until their youths picked up arms.
The Fulani terrorists? Radicalized. Left behind by the same government that claimed to represent them, now manipulated by religion and resentment.
The Almajiri? Radicalized. Abandoned by an elite that used their poverty as a vote bank and then left them to rot.
The Agbero? Radicalized. Uneducated, weaponized, and unleashed as tools of political chaos.
Even the middle class is slowly being radicalized, not with guns, but with hopelessness. That, too, is a ticking time bomb.
A nation cannot continue to marginalize its most brilliant tribe and expect peace.
The Igbo are not docile. They are not quiet. They are not forgetful. They are survivors, and survivors don’t beg for space forever. At some point, they take it.
The Igbo didn’t set out to be radicals. They were made into one by a country that won’t stop seeing their confidence as a threat.
You can’t keep pretending unity means silence. You can’t keep preaching peace while planting injustice.
The Igbo are not asking for too much, they just want to live, build, and grow.
But if you insist on turning their dignity into defiance, their enterprise into enmity, and their survival into sedition, then you are creating a monster.
And if history has taught us anything, it’s this: when a persecuted people decide that survival is no longer enough, when they decide to stop running and start resisting, they don’t just fight back. They win.
Nigeria must understand this: you cannot keep pushing people into a corner and expect submission.
When you back a lion into a wall, don’t expect it to purr. It will roar. It will claw. It will tear through anything standing between it and freedom.
So here’s the final warning, for those who still care to listen: Nigeria is radicalizing the Igbo.
But worse, Nigeria is radicalizing everyone. And it won’t end well.
When the fire spreads, when the rebellion multiplies, when the beast we created begins to fight back, don’t act shocked; no tribe will be left untouched.
Don’t pretend it wasn’t preventable. We all made it happen. You don’t corner a lion and expect peace.
Abolaji Rasaq is a public affairs analyst.
Palpable crisis is brewing in Nnewi over the election of the President General of Uruagu Community in the industrial town of Anambra State, with a business mogul and owner of Organiser Plc., Chief Innocent Okoli, accused of upsetting the apple cart.
The crisis has led to protests and resignation of members of the Board of Trustees (BoT).
One of the resignation letters sighted by News Band was from a legal practitioner, J. N. Obi, Esq.
Barrister Obi, until his resignation served as the Secretary of the Executive Committee and member, Uruagu Board of Trustees.
Tendering his resignation letter, Obi cited brazen violation of the Constitution of Uruagu Nnewi Community Development Union.
The letter was referenced OB/03 /296/2025, dated May 8, 2025, and addressed to His Highness. Obi A. C. Obi (Ogidi IV).
In the letter entitled “Letter of resignation as member, Board of Trustees (B.O. T) Uruagu Nnewi. Obi announced his resignation based on the following reasons:
- Article 8. 9 (a) of the Constitution of Uruagu Nnewi Community Development Union. 2022 (As Amended) states and I quote:
“The Board shall “Ensure the observance of this Constitution”. - Article 14.4 of the Constitution of Uruagu Nnewi Community Development Union 2022 (As Amended) states and I quote:
“Each ward shall submit a list of the Electors In writing to the Secretary General of the Union, one month before any election.
“The submission of the list of the Electors shall be done by the Ward Chairman In consultation with the Ward’s Obi.” - “The election sought to be conducted on Saturday, 10th day of May 2025, did not comply with the above provisious as it was on the Union’s general meeting of the I3th day of April 2025 that the expiration of the tenure of the Executives was announced.”
The legal pratictioner, however, noted that the election to be held on May 10 will not be up to one month.
He, therefore, resigned his membership of B. 0. T for failure to abide by the above provisions of the Constitution as stated above.
On his part, the former President General of Uruagu Nnewi, Chief Ambassador Charles Nwonye, decried series of illegalities in the proposed election championed by Chief Okoli.
He recalled the efforts of past and present stakeholders to ensure that Uruagu Nnewi Community Development Union is recognised as a legal and responsible entity in the state.
He, however, speaking in a voice note obtained by Diaspora Digital Media (DDM), regretted:
“It’s very, very unfortunate that those counsels that instituted Uruagu Development Union are no longer alive.
“They were the ones who were known for speaking out the truth. But at the same time, we will not all keep quiet.
“I, hereby, wish to bring the following to the attention of all Uruagu indigenes, scattered all over Nigeria and in the diaspora that four years ago, a similar thing happened.
“Uruagu Nnewi Constitution was also flagrantly violated four years ago.
“At the end, a lot of stakeholders asked the former Executive Committee to resign and leave en masse.
“The Constitution, however, allowed them to recontest.
“The Executive Committee then honourably resigned and no one of us recontested, ushering in a new Executive Committee.
“They argued that following the election, the Constitution will be amended to correct all the flaws and ensure no such flagrant abused repeats itself.
“They went for the election and what happened there was the same illegality we’re talking about.
“Some of our youths went and connived with mischief makers, disrupted the election and declared the present Executive Committee members winners.
“The youths stood by them in their misguided thoughts that the Executive Committee members enjoy special gains in the office.
“They disrupted the election and ensured that the present crop of Executive Committee members was ushered in.
“The election was heavily flawed and rigged in favour of Eloka Ike and Innocent Okoli, but we let go and left peacefully.
“The new Executive Committee promised to preside for only four years and leave, but we are currently seeing the same illegalities.
“I dare ask: Should Uruagu be known only for illegalities? I thought Ndi Uruagu are smart people?
“I have observed that there are certain individuals who are hell-bent on ensuring that the Uruagu leadership fails.
“They seem bent on destroying all our efforts, acting as agents of chaos and destruction.
“How can one man gather a bunch of Umuezeagu indigenes and take them to the court, claiming that they sued the union to court?
“They deceived the High Court and got a frivolous injunction against Uruagu people, all in the name of election!
“When I got this information, I knew that something was wrong.
“How can someone, after serving a tenure fraught with irregularities, fight his way to a second tenure against the people’s wish?
“I want to make it clear to all the delegates in the so-called election that it will not be possible to make an illegality legal.
“Anyone who casts a vote in that sham election is an agent provocateur, as well as a villain.
“Let it be on record that I denounced the so-called election founded on illegality and fraud and all participants, be it a delegate or participant in any manner is an enemy of the people.”
Chief Okoli and other responsible people of Nnewi leadership could not be reached for comment at the moment of this publication.
More details will follow…
The remains of HRH Eze Stephen Nwabueze Ugorji, Orji Ukwu 1 of Lorji Nwekeukwu Autonomous Community in Aboh Mbaise Local Government Area, will be laid to rest on Thursday, May 22, 2025.
The late Eze Ugorji will be buried in his palace at Orji Ukwu Estate, Lorji, following a Catholic funeral Mass at St. Andrews Catholic Church, Lorji.
News Band was informed that His Excellency the Catholic Bishop of Ahiara Diocese, Bishop Okezuo Nwobi, has been invited to officiate at the ceremony.
Bishop Nwobi, it was learnt, has also accepted the family’s invitation to officiate at the funeral rites of the late grand traditional ruler.
This information was provided to members of the press in Owerri by the Opara Eze (First Son of the Eze), former Commissioner for Homeland Security and Vigilante Affairs, Dr. Ugorji Okechukwu Ugorji.
His Lordship Bishop Okezuo Nwobi, the Catholic Bishop of Ahiara Diocese (Mbaise) and Eze Nwabueze Ugorji’s First Son, Dr. Ugorji Okechukwu Ugorji
“The family is grateful to His Lordship for granting us a rare request to officiate at a funeral on a Thursday,” Dr. Ugorji said.
“Our father will feel honored and appreciated because he was not just a devoted Catholic, he shouldered the building of the St. Andrews Catholic Church at Lorji until his death,” the former commissioner added.
Igbo Corner
EXCLUSIVE: Ngozi Orabueze dissolves Biafra Govt In Exile as Simon Ekpa may spend longer time in prison
Dr. Ngozi Orabueze has abruptly dissolved the Biafra Government In Exile following secret information that his former boss, Simon Ekpa may not be coming out from Finnish detention in a hurry.
News Band reported that Mrs. Orabueze, a former Chief of Staff to Mr Simon Ekpa, the self-acclaimed Prime Minister of Biafra Government In Exile, toppled his principal after he was thrown into prison for promoting violent agitation and terrorism in the Southeast of Nigeria.
Ekpa’s trial is scheduled to start in May 2025.
Ngozi, a former chairperson of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Atlanta, United States in a statement on Wednesday, announced the dissolution of Biafra Government In Exile.
She said all assets of the Biafra Republic Government In Exile and it’s affiliates shall be transferred to the secretary of the State of the United States of Biafra.
Orabueze also directed all officers of the former exile government to report to their counterpart with the United States of Biafra for reassignment.
The statement reads, “It is resolved that the Biafra Republic Government In Exile (BRGIE) is hereby dissolved as it’s reason for the existence has been superceded by the November 29, 2024 Declaration of the restoration of the Independent United States of Biafra
“All assets of the Biafra Republic Government In Exile and it’s affiliates(BRGIE corporation ID: D237527271) shall be transferred to the secretary of the State of the United States of Biafra.
“All officers of the former exile government shall report to their counterpart with the United States of Biafra for reassignment. All activities of the Biafra Republic Government In Exile shall cease as of February 15, 2025”.
Meanwhile, an insider source in the movement reliably told News Band that Ngozi decided to dissolve BRGIE after receiving intel that Simon Ekpa might spend longer time in prison.
The source also revealed that the Nigerian government is doing everything within it’s power to nail Simon Ekpa for all his atrocious acts in the SouthEast region.
So, the only way to keep the agitation going in the absence of Ekpa is to dissolve BRGIE.
“Yes, Ngozi Orabueze dissolved the Biafra Republic Government In Exile so as to be fully in charge of the assets belonging to the movement. With the way the Nigerian government is going about the case of Simon Ekpa, he may spend longer time in prison”, the source said.
Moreover, before now, Orabueze has been at war with some arrowheads of the separatist movement who refused to acknowledge her authority.
This however, has led to series of fights, accusation and counter accusations among the agitators.
We celebrate the life of Mrs. Roseline Udu Eze, a devoted wife, mother, grandmother, and pillar of strength.
Her unwavering love, kindness, and selflessness left an indelible mark on all who knew her.
Though we mourn her passing, we take solace in the legacy she leaves behind and the cherished memories we hold. Rest peacefully in the arms of the Lord, dear Roseline.
You will forever be missed.
May her soul rest in perfect peace.
Amen.
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