According to a video on Honest Bunch Podcast, on Tuesday May 26, 2026, Nollywood actor Yul Edochie raised a pointed question about political equity in Nigeria, asking why Igbo people who have consistently supported the People’s Democratic Party and its candidates from other geopolitical zones for decades found themselves without comparable reciprocal support when a candidate from the southeast sought the presidency.
The conversation had moved into a broader discussion about whether Igbo people are politically marginalised in Nigeria, and what structural barriers might exist that prevent them from ascending to the nation’s highest office.
Edochie was careful in how he engaged this topic, noting that he generally believes hard work and determination overcome most obstacles, and that he does not like to frame things exclusively in terms of ethnic disadvantage.
However, on the specific question of voting patterns and political loyalty, he said the numbers told a particular story that deserved to be acknowledged.
He said Igbo people had shown up consistently for PDP candidates across multiple elections spanning decades, including in 1999, 2003, 2007, 2011, 2015, and 2019, voting for candidates from the southwest and from the north without hesitation.
He said the expectation, based on that record of loyalty, would be that the same goodwill would be extended in return when it was the southeast’s turn to present a candidate for consideration.at expectation was not met, and that this reality cannot simply be dismissed.
In his words, Yul Edochie said, “In 1999, 2003, 2007, 2011, 2015, 2019, Ndigo massively voted for the People’s Democratic Party that people say has a national appeal.
“Why be say when it come, the same people don’t vote for PE come from southwest state, north um northwest, Borno state, south Bayelsa state. He can’t to vote for person come from southeast Anambra. They come say they need to be more strategic,” he said.
He said this observation is not an argument for tribalism but a call for fairness in how political loyalty is honoured across the country’s regions.