BY AUGUSTINE AVWODE AND TIMOTHY AGBOR
It has always been clear that the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party would have a lot of talking and explanations to do about its zoning policy, especially as it affects the presidential slot for the 2023 general elections.
Last week, the party made what would seem to be its official position on the vexed subject known for the first time. All along, it had found it necessary to deflect questions of zoning whenever they cropped up.
But while interacting with a delegation of a political pressure group, Northern Advocate for Good Governance (NAFGG), which had gone to the party’s secretariat to submit a letter advocating for a presidential candidate of northern Nigeria extraction in the 2023 presidential election, the party said its ticket for the office was open to all the six geopolitical zones of the country.
It maintained that no zone would be denied the opportunity of aspiring to fly the presidential ticket of the party.
The group, NAFGG, is insisting that all the geopolitical zones, including those that had produced the president before, be made eligible to vie for the presidential ticket.
Receiving the report from the group on behalf of the national chairman, Deputy National Publicity Secretary, Abdullahi Ibrahim, commended the group for advocating equal opportunity for all the zones.
He said, “This is a commendable initiative. We are doing the best we can in that regard if Nigerians like you find it pertinent to assist us in achieving that objective.
“The new National Working Committee (NWC) under the leadership of Senator Iyorchia Ayu has already resolved this is exactly what it would pursue as an objective in ensuring that the six geopolitical zones of Nigeria were given equal opportunity to bid for the available offices to rescue and rebuild Nigeria.
“Those who are interested in pursuing the presidency, we are opening it for every Nigerian to pursue and many other offices that are national in outlook, Nigerians are free to pursue. As we speak, every Nigerian is bidding from the South-East, from the South-West, and from the North. No section of Nigeria will be denied an opportunity to contest or aspire. It is left for Nigerians to decide where they want to allow the presidency to go.”
The clamour for the zoning and further micro-zoning of the presidential ticket to geo-political regions has been a major talking point in the last 18 months in the party. The known formula has been a North/South zoning arrangement, which different parties have adopted since the return of democratic rule in 1999.
But the Deputy National Publicity Secretary made it a bit more complex when he tried to rationalise the argument of throwing the slot open. While answering questions from journalists, Abdullahi Ibrahim said, “We will not condone twisted and half-baked conclusions. From 1999 to 2023, the South would have ruled Nigeria for 14 years, and the North, for 10 years. Why should we then prioritise the south to take over when the north has a shortfall?”
“Many northern governors and leading politicians like Tanko Yakassai insist that power must go to the South. Power staying in the North is tantamount to unacceptable political domination that will destroy national cohesion and lead to divisive struggles that will constrain development”
This, political commentators believe, was a poor attempt to justify the seemingly official position of the party in that it completely forgot or refused to acknowledge the fact that, of Nigeria’s 62 years since independence, the North has ruled cumulatively for 41 years and six months, while the South has only been in power for 20 years and six months.
In the said letter to the National Chairman of the PDP, the National Coordinator of the northern group, Mallam Mahmoud Mohammed Katun, called for priority to be given to zones in the North that had not had the opportunity to govern Nigeria to guarantee equity, fairness, and justice.
Katun, however, emphasised experience, competence and capacity as necessary things to be considered even in zoning the office.
He said, “But, even more importantly, it is our considered position that political parties should prioritise experience, competence, and capacity in choosing or zoning their presidential tickets.
“Both the North-East and North-Central parts of the country have very distinguished and eminently qualified people to run for the president of Nigeria in their various political affiliations.
In fact, we dare any group to suggest a candidate that can rival the likes of Atiku Abubakar, Bukola Abubakar Saraki, and Bala Mohammed, all eminent and qualified aspirants from the aforementioned zones.”
Expectedly, the declaration has elicited wild jubilation amongst supporters and promoters of the ‘open door’ approach while proponents of zoning, have reacted with cautious optimism given the hitherto well-known position of the party that pronouncement on zoning will only be made at the ‘appropriate time’.
Former National Publicity Secretary of the party, Kola Ologbondiyan, had, in the wake of Governor Dave Umahi’s advanced reasons for his defection to the All Progressives Congress, in which he mentioned the failure of the party to zone the Presidency to the South East, said it was not yet discussed.
Ologbondiyan said that the PDP was a party of due process and inclusiveness and that all interests within the party would collectively and peacefully take a decision on zoning when the time comes.
Apparently uncomfortable with the declaration of the Deputy National Publicity Secretary, former national chairman of the PDP, Okweziliese Nwodo, insisted last week that the main opposition party had yet to take a decision on the zoning of the presidency ahead of the 2023 elections.
Nwodo, who spoke on a national television morning show, insisted that the party had not taken a decision on where it would zone its presidential ticket, saying what was happening at the moment was that every group that “wishes to present a presidential candidate is making their case.”
He recalled the late General Sani Abacha constitution conference of 1995, which proposed that there would be a rotational presidency between the North and the South.
That draft constitution, he maintained, proposed two vice presidents. He stressed that if these provisions were not taken out when the 1999 constitution was drafted, there wouldn’t have been any need for a doctrine of necessity, when former President Musa Yar’dua died because the vice president from the zone that the president came from would have stepped in as a president.
“As we speak now, the PDP has not taken a decision on where the president will come from with regard to our nomination. You will recall that when we did our last national convention, we zoned just for the party offices and we didn’t zone for the elective offices at the executive level.
“Now, we are still going to set up a zoning committee, when we get to that stage, we will look at the zoning. What is happening now is that every group that wishes to present a presidential candidate is making their case,” he argued.
Former Commissioner for Information in Edo State, Kazeem Afegbua, expressed the same sentiment when he made his opinion known to The Point at the weekend.
He said, “The PDP has not met at the expanded leadership level, so it will be premature to comment about that. My present position is predicated on the fact that there hasn’t been a meeting to that effect. Don’t forget that before the convention of the party, meetings of zoning were held and decisions were reached. That is the same way meetings would be held to take a position on zoning, once INEC releases timetable,” he told The Point in a terse message.
Martin Onovo, an engineer and presidential candidate of the National Conscience Party (NCP) in the 2015 general election told The Point that equity and fairness demand that the 2023 Presidency be zoned to the South.
He argued that even though he was not a member of the PDP, “what is fair and good to all is what is paramount to him.”
“The first is that our constitutional Federal Character requires representation of all geo-political groups. Secondly, Gov. El-Rufai confirmed that it is the understanding in APC that the presidency should go to the South after Buhari. Thirdly, we know that rotation is in the PDP Constitution. Moreso, we know that the late Gen. Abacha’s draft Constitution provided for ‘Power Rotation’. And, we know that after Obj (South), it was Yar’Adua (North), then Dr. Jonathan (South) b4 Gen. Buhari (North).
“These are not coincidences. They are agreed political norms and standards. And, from Independence to 2023, the North has been dominating power for over 70 per cent of the time. Now, the Ijaw National Congress has insisted on restructuring or Ijaw nation while Afenifere wants restructuring before 2023 elections. The overwhelming majority of Nigerians (4 out of 6 zones) want power to come to the South in 2023.
“Many northern governors and leading politicians like Tanko Yakassai insist that power must go to the South. Power staying in the North is tantamount to unacceptable political domination that will destroy national cohesion and lead to divisive struggles that will constrain development. God help us,” was his response to The Point.
“I think the situation is dicey for us from the South having regard to the resolution of the Southern Governors’ Forum, the strong sentiments of Southern Nigeria and the need to do equity”
However, a former Minister of Transportation and chieftain of the PDP, Chief Ebenezer Babatope has commended the decision of the leadership of the party to throw its presidential ticket to all the six geopolitical zones of the country.
Babatope, in an exclusive interview with The Point, said the open participation method would enable the party to produce the best candidate that would take the party to victory in 2023.
He said not denying any zone the opportunity of contesting was a plus for the major opposition party.
“That’s fair enough by the leadership of the party so that the best material can be found. If that should be done, I think our party is on the line of winning the Presidency. If that’s what they have done, then I will support it,” he said.
Also, speaking exclusively to The Point on the reported decision of the party on zoning, Anthony Okonkwo, National Secretary General of the Atiku Support Organisation, an integrated development economist and management consultant, in a lengthy argument, applauded the decision.
“That’s what we have been waiting for and the decision is timely in order to get the best out of all the bests! Nigeria is facing the worst administration since independence. Our country is gradually dissipating and withering away. We need to rescue the nation and must put our house in order.
“We must not gamble in the PDP. Nigerians are now openly drawing comparisons and conclusions between the PDP years in government between 1999 and 2015. Our country is bleeding from gross ineptitude and failures of leadership. We must now reframe the tide of failures, secure our country, restore confidence in the Nigerian nation, develop new economic growth potentials, join other developing nations in their match to information and technology programs so we can create more jobs, attract more young people to government and more importantly reawaken foreign investors who left because of poor economic policies.”
Okonkwo argued further that in the PDP, the North had only done two years and so the party is in a dilemma.
“Supposing we have the luxury of zoning in the PDP, where should we zone to? People usually say North and South. Between 1999 – 2015, the South ruled for 14 years and the North only for 2 years. So where should it be zoned to now?
“But our party recognises 6 geopolitical zones. 3 Zones have already benefited. The South-West, South-South and North-West. Leaving the North-East, North-Central and the South-East. So if we were to zone, we should consider these three as a matter of equity, fairness and justice.
“Furthermore, if we are following equity, we should then consider from the last dispensation. The last PDP government was from the South-South. Therefore no Southern regions should be in consideration this time, it should now be narrowed down to the North-East and North-Central zones.
“But the issue at stake now is beyond zoning. Our party has seen that Nigerians want a new lease of life. There is mass poverty and penury. Furthermore, our infrastructure and human capital gains have waned. The worst thing happening now is we don’t even feel safe as a people.
“We have never had criminals or whatever names they choose to call them, to walk into schools and kidnap children and teachers and bolt away for long periods without respite. We even see military and police stations ravaged and officers kidnapped. It’s grave and the height of insecurity. These are real and not mere tales.
“We need a leader who can unite the country, who has the experience in job creation and education of our youth, who has the experience in governance, one whose name will regain the confidence of investors and the international community and ultimately deliberately show Nigerians that though tribe and tongue may differ, but in brotherhood, we stand. In short , we need a leader who will practise the principle of ‘no tribe left behind.’”
As for Chief Anslem Ojezua, lawyer and former APC State chairman for Edo State, who defected with Governor Godwin Obaseki to the PDP, the situation is dicey for the PDP. He said the resolution of the Southern Governors and many other interest groups, both socio-cultural and political pressure groups, made the subject a dicey one, ‘hence the opposition party seems to be playing hide and seek with it.”
“I think the situation is dicey for us from the South having regard to the resolution of the Southern Governors’ Forum, the strong sentiments of Southern Nigeria and the need to do equity.
“The situation is akin to pre-1999 tension, which prompted the choice of Obasanjo to lead at the material time,” he told The Point in a telephone interview.
As the 2023 general elections draw near, the issue of zoning will continue to dominate political discourse until an acceptable middle ground is found, especially by the opposition PDP. If properly handled, it could enhance its chances of winning the election but if poorly handled, could lead to an implosion of the party seeking to regain a position it lost to the APC about seven years ago.
