A chieftain of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Osita Okechukwu, has warned that the African Democratic Congress (ADC) could suffer a similar implosion currently rocking the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) if it breaches the rotation convention that allows the South to complete the traditional eight years in office.
Okechukwu, the immediate past Director-General of the Voice of Nigeria (VON), described the lingering crisis in the PDP—culminating in the rejection of the Tanimu Turaki-led faction—as karma finally catching up with the party.
Speaking with newsmen in Abuja, he cautioned the ADC, which he alleged played a role in inducing the PDP’s political implosion, to beware of a similar fate in 2027 if it proceeds to violate the zoning arrangement. He warned that such a move would amount to a rendezvous with karma.
Okechukwu expressed regret that if the ADC succumbs to what he described as “power gluttony” in 2027 by breaching the rotation convention and denying the South the completion of its eight years in Aso Villa, it would have no one else to blame.
He maintained that the PDP is paying dearly for its flagrant violation of the rotation or zoning convention and Section 7 of its constitution, which mandates the rotation of the presidency between the North and the South.
“I hope that when the ADC in 2027 plunges into the temptation of breaching the rotation convention by not allowing the South to complete the traditional eight years in Aso Villa, they will neither blame President Bola Ahmed Tinubu nor the APC for imposing a one-party system in Nigeria,” he said.
According to him, by then, “it will amount to boarding a vehicle tagged ‘No Refund After Payment.’”
Okechukwu recalled that warnings had been persistently issued to Ndigbo against putting all their political eggs in one basket—the PDP—since the 1999 presidential election, when the party denied its founder and former Vice President, Dr. Alex Ekwueme, the presidential ticket.
He also cited the 2003 and 2007 elections, when Rt. Hon. Dr. Chuba Okadigbo and Rt. Hon. Edwin Umezoke were fielded as presidential candidates, as well as the 2011 and 2019 presidential elections.
“It is my candid view that the ADC will suffer the same fate as the PDP, especially as it is on the same trajectory of breaching the rotation convention based on the false assumption that the northern electorate can simply be mobilised en masse to vote for former Vice President Atiku Abubakar,” Okechukwu said.
“I am at a loss as to why the ADC leadership assumes that the sophisticated northern electorate will hand them 12 million votes, when it is the consensus platform of rotation that guarantees inclusion, equity and a sense of belonging,” he added.
The former VON boss stressed that the PDP leadership should not blame President Tinubu or the Wike-led G-5 governors for the party’s implosion, but rather accept what he described as the bitter pill of karma—an outcome he warned the ADC is heading towards by omission or commission.
He concluded by stressing that Nigeria’s Fourth Republic is firmly anchored on the zoning and rotation convention as a key pillar of national unity in a fragile and polarised polity, warning that any violent breach of the arrangement would similarly plunge the ADC into crisis, just as it has done to the PDP.
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