The crisis tearing the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) apart has worsened with the resignation of a member of its Board of Trustees (BoT) and prominent Igbo leader, Professor ABC Nwosu on Thursday, January 12, 2023.
Prof. Nwosu, a former Minister of Health, said that his dumping of the party is based on its “inability to adhere to the ROTATION provision in its (PDP) Constitution. ”
The resignation letter was addressed to the National Chairman of the PDP, Dr. Iyorchia Ayu,and copied to the Acting Chairman of the BoT, Chief Adolphus Wabara and the Chairman, PDP Ward 1, Nnewi. Prof. Nwosu.
In it, the elder statesman, who signed off as “Ex-member PDP, said that the “journey to rotational presidency between the North and South of Nigeria has been a long and arduous one and I have been involved.”
He noted further that “Nigeria and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) must learn to keep to an agreement reached by a Constituent Assembly (1995); and enshrined in the Party’s (PDP) Constitution (1998).
The Group of five Governors of the PDP, otherwise known as the Integrity Group and their supporters have been at loggerheads with the party over balancing of positions in the party, insisting that the national chairman, Ayu, must resign before they support the presidential candidate of the party, Atiku Abubakar.
They argue that there was an agreement, after the party decided to throw the contest for the presidential ticket open to all comers, that if the ticket should go to a Northerner the national chairmanship position must go to a southerner, an agreement that has been thrown overboard.
