Ezekwesili: PDP should have made Peter Obi its presidential candidate

Oby Ezekwesili, former minister of education, says the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) should have made Peter Obi its presidential candidate.

Obi left the PDP days to the presidential primary election, citing foul play as his reason. He joined the Labour Party and became the party’s presidential candidate.

Speaking on Channels TV’s Sunday Politics, the former minister said both the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the PDP committed contempt against Nigeria.

She said the APC’s Muslim-Muslim presidential ticket does not reflect the diversity of Nigeria, and that the PDP also erred by abandoning the zoning principle in its constitution and electing a candidate from the north.

“This is a party that has always said that it’s built around inclusion. So it’s always made it possible for the rotation principle to support the emergence of their candidate but suddenly a candidate emerges who has been contesting many other times,” she said on the PDP.

“When you know that clearly the time of the people from the South East as you designed it to be is now and you just upstaged that and yet you have the arrogance to be saying to them that they have no reason to complain because this is the season of character, competence and capacity.

“That’s sophistry because if you are going to use character, competence and capacity, then many of them don’t qualify to be the one saying, ‘we should be the one running because within the South East, they could have found people with the character, competence and capacity and by the way Peter Obi who is now the candidate of Labour Party was in your party. So if you really needed character, competence and capacity in a way that is just, in a way that is equitable, in a way that is inclusive in your PDP, you could have made Peter Obi become your candidate.”

She said Obi’s movement has support from Muslims from the north and the south, adding that it is not an ethnic movement.

“Before people begin to say this is an Igbo thing. It’s not true. I have so many people from the North, people who are Muslims, people from the South who are Muslims who simply say that it is not proper that the two dominant parties acted the way they did. So, a lot of that is also fuelling the kind of support that Peter Obi is receiving,” she said.

Ezekwesili added that the APC’s Muslim-Muslim presidential ticket “is like being contemptible of a segment of the population.”