Former Director General of Voice of Nigeria, VON, and founding member of the All Progressives Congress, Osita Okechukwu, on Sunday said the Southeast is preparing to say goodbye with the planned exit of Governor Peter Mbah of Enugu State from the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.

 

 

There are rumours that Mbah will soon defect from the PDP to the APC.

 

Reacting, Okechukwu said Mbah’s exit is a defining political moment and a clear indication that the Southeast geopolitical zone has finally bid the PDP goodbye.

 

 

Addressing journalists on Sunday, Okechukwu recalled the timeless lamentation of the late Dr Chuba Okadigbo, who once warned that the PDP “pays good deeds with bad coins.”

 

Okechukwu argued that Governor Mbah’s exit vindicates that lamentation, adding that Okadigbo’s experience from the 1999 Jos presidential primary where the former Vice President and PDP co-founder was sabotaged, to the 2003 election where Ndigbo naively ignored the Buhari/Okadigbo ticket — remains a historic lesson.

 

The party man criticized the PDP’s “utter disregard” for equity and justice, especially in 2023, when the party breached the Fourth Republic’s long-standing zoning convention.

 

 

He recalled that at the Port Harcourt presidential primary, no southern aspirant participated, despite repeated appeals for fairness and rotation.

 

Okechukwu said Mbah’s defection from the PDP to the APC is “a pragmatic, rational, and inevitable decision”, symbolizing the total collapse of PDP’s dominance in the Southeast from controlling all five state governments in 1999 to having zero governors in 2025.

 

He said: “The last straw that broke the PDP’s camel’s back was the deliberate marginalization of the Southeast during the controversy over the National Secretary position.”

 

 

He cited the communiqué issued by the PDP South East Zonal Executive Committee (ZEC) after its meeting at Government House, Enugu, on May 14, 2023, which warned:

 

“In the event that the Southeast’s position that Sunday Udeh-Okoye should replace Senator Samuel Anyanwu, who left to contest the Imo governorship election, is not implemented promptly, the Southeast PDP, as a family, will be compelled to reconsider our relationship with the PDP going forward.”

 

Okechukwu also referenced remarks by former Senate President and PDP Board of Trustees Chairman, Senator Adolphus Wabara, who “decried the continued trampling of the Southeast PDP despite the region’s unwavering loyalty to the party since 1998.”

 

 

Okechukwu maintained that the PDP’s serial betrayal, neglect, and abuse of the Southeast were sufficient grounds for Governor Mbah’s long-anticipated defection.

 

“Governor Mbah’s exit is not an isolated event — it is the final chapter in the Southeast’s disillusionment with a party that failed to reward faithfulness, fairness, and friendship,”he added.