Dr. Nwodo was hosted to a grand reception by the people of the South-East last Monday and it would appear that the occasion provided him an inspiration to cause a drastic change in the operations of the party. LEON USIGBE reports.

It is final. It is authentic. It is from the horse’s mouth: zoning is dead in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). The new helmsman of the ruling party stated this with aplomb when confronted by reporters just moments after his kinsmen in Enugu State hosted him to a grand reception for attaining the coveted position.

Dr. Okwesilieze Nwodo is not given to frivolities. He is a man of strong character as attested to by all those who spoke at the grand rally which took place in Okpara Square in the capital of the old Eastern Region this past Monday. It is his strong will and strength of character that has propelled him to the position of the National Chairman of the PDP when he was all but written off as a politician.

He was Enugu State governor under the military dispensation of General Ibrahim Babangida but could not manage to be militarised. He was the pioneer national secretary of the PDP at inception and credited with conducting the freest presidential primaries, which opened the way for Chief Olusegun Obasanjo to become president of Nigeria before things went awry and was subsequently frustrated out of the party.

Many believe that it was his insistence on doing the right thing and engendering greater internal democracy in the PDP that cost him his job at the time. Those he had to work with within the party had dictatorial tendencies and did not seem to care too much about the opinion of the majority of the party members as the era of impunity reigned. Dr. Nwodo could not buy into that and had to be pressured to quit.

His people in Enugu State and in fact, the South-East, are now in cloud nine over his return to the party as its boss. They and many other members around the country are confident that his recent rise to the topmost position in PDP is indicative of the positive things that will happen in the PDP as it marches towards next year’s general election. Indeed, his refrain so far has been nothing short of “change, change, and change in the way of doing things in the PDP.”

No wonder, the entire South-East, with a reputation for being the most factious in the country, is lining up behind him. For the first time in the region’s history, all the state governors came together, putting aside their political and personal differences to receive him in a show of solidarity that may never again be witnessed in the region.

From Governor Peter Obi of Anambra State, Martins Elechi of Ebonyi State, Theodore Orji of Abia, Ikedi Ohakim of Imo State to Sullivan Chime of Enugu, all were unanimous that a star has been born to the area which must be propped up to realise the lofty dreams of the Easterners, in particular, and Nigerians in general. It is as a result of his emergence as the party chairman that the South-East states reassessed their political position in Nigerian polity at this time and resolved that it was best not to aspire to the office of the president or vice president in 2011 election.

Such is the confidence they have in him to be able to protect the interest of the region that they do not see the point in backing another person for any such post in the election.

South East politicians who were not present at the reception must be feeling isolated now because the event was a grand show of unity and an expression of the aspiration of the people of the Igbos as pointed out by the Enugu State chairman of the PDP, Vita Abah, who said that the presence of thousands of people from all walks of life in Okpara Square was an indication that Dr. Nwodo was a man to be celebrated for the hopes he brings to the party and the people.

The national vice chairman of the party in South-East, Chief Olisa Metu, was also of the view that the South-East had suffered enough and, therefore, felt supremely confident that the era of Dr. Nwodo had opened a new page for them, pointing out that the era of external political manipulation of the people of the region was gone.

“South-East is using this occasion to show support and confidence in you (Nwodo). We have suffered and we have conquered since you have emerged as the national chairman of PDP. We believe that you will deliver. No external force will be allowed to manipulate us in the South-East. We have our leaders and we will be led by them,” he declared.

Former governor of Akwa-Ibom State, Victor Attah, who was also present, was effusive in his description of Nwodo as a man who stood against impunity in the party as exemplified by his action during the 1998 national convention of the PDP in Jos. He told the massive crowd at the reception: “I want to remind us of what happened in August 1998 when the PDP was launched with enormous expectation about what it can do.

It started well and derailed and we wondered what happened to the democratic principles upon which it was built. But one man stood for it during the convention and conducted a presidential primary without favouring his kinsman. President Jonathan is determined to succeed but cannot without a good party structure. But let us be hopeful that there is a brand new PDP under Dr. Nwodo.” But it was Governor Orji of Abia State that succinctly summed up the event and the significance of the presence of who-is-who in the politics of the Igbos when he stated: “If you look around me, you will see that I am surrounded by brother governors.

This shows the spirit with which we are now working. We decided at our South-East governors meeting to attend this occasion and give solidarity to our son who God has elevated to be the national chairman of the PDP. I am here to felicitate with Nwodo and to say how happy I am with what God wants to do with him for the South-East. He should go ahead to do what God and the people of the South-East want him to do.”

Governor Sullivan Chime of Enugu and the host of the reception, provided a fitting background to the recent occurrences as they concerned the new party chairman, recalling his travails in the PDP in the past. “This crowd is a testimony to the goodwill. If anybody had told Nwodo two years ago that he would be national chairman of the PDP, he would have called that person names. He was not even a member of the party because he left out of frustration.

“He is back and has been campaigning with us. Nigeria saw and recognised him. PDP after him will never be the same; change has already come to PDP. Anybody that knows him knows that PDP has come to stay.  We have no other party in Enugu State.  We are open to everyone and we run internal democracy which Nwodo stands for. This is what he will bring to the party at the national level,” Governor Chime said.

So, there is a weight of positive expectation on the shoulders of Dr. Nwodo and in this early times, he has showed he may be prepared to take difficult decisions as long as he considers them to be what will advance the interest of the PDP and the people of the country.

The question of zoning easily stands out as the dominant topic in the run up to the 2011 election and  Nwodo has not shied away from confronting frontally where other party chieftains have been dithering. This is against the background of the perceived ambition of President Goodluck Jonathan to vie for the presidential position in the coming election, even when it was thought that the PDP had a rotation policy on ground, which would have kept power in the North for another four years.

This is no minding the fact that President Umaru Yar’Adua who occupied the slot of the North is no more and Jonathan was a part of the original presidential ticket. Proponents of the retention of the policy argue that Jonathan should give way and allow a Northerner to be selected for the presidential candidate of PDP, in spite of him being the incumbent.

But opponents of the policy are saying that it is within the constitutional right of Dr. Jonathan to contest the election and in any case, God has redesigned the zoning formula by ensuring that it is a South-South politician who is at the helms today and can serve out the next tenure. Until now, it has been an ongoing argument which the national chairman of the party has apparently laid to rest as far as the party is concerned with his Enugu declaration. But rather than put an end to the zoning debate, it is likely to intensify until at least a presidential candidate emerges in the PDP for the 2011 election.