Earlier today, a report by Sunday Tribune disclosed that Nigeria’s ruling party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), has allegedly snubbed the South-East region, and zoned the party’s 2023 presidential ticket to the Southwest region. It should be recalled that for a while now, South-Easterners have been demanding for a Nigerian President of Igbo extraction, based on the argument that the region has not produced a President or a Vice President of Nigeria since the return to democratic rule in 1999.

Despite the agitations for a Nigerian President of Igbo extraction in 2023, Sunday Tribune’s report revealed that the region has once again, been snubbed by the APC, with the Southwest tipped to produce President Muhammadu Buhari’s successor. Since the report emerged, many Nigerians have continued to take turns in reacting to it. There is no doubt that the Southwest region is more inclined towards the APC than the South-East region, and played a critical role in the emergence of the APC in 2015. However, the decision to snub the South-East, could affect the party’s chances of victory in 2023.

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It is common knowledge that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) dominates the South-East and South-south regions. With this, there are chances that even with an APC candidate from the Southwest, these two regions will still throw their weight behind the PDP. Again, the insistence of some Northerners on producing the next President, and the PDP’s quest to reclaim the power it lost in 2015, could see the PDP take advantage of the situation, to nominate a Northern candidate for the 2023 presidential election.

The implication of this to APC’s chances of victory in 2023, is that many Northerners who are against the idea of zoning of the 2023 Presidency to the Southern region, could join the PDP to support a Northern candidate. At the same time, the snubbing of the South-East region by the party, could also see some APC members in the region, return to the PDP and help the party secure a landslide victory over the APC in the region.