April 11, (THEWILL) – The issue of where to zone the 2023 presidency reared its ugly head last week, following an alleged leaked report of the Peoples Democratic Party Zoning Committee, which allegedly threw open the position of the president to all the zones.
The news of the alleged leakage of the report drew wild criticism from eminent people in the southern part of the country, including the pan-Igbo socio-cultural organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, which insists that it is the turn of the South East to produce the president in 2023
THEWILL recalls that about three weeks ago, the PDP set up a 37-member zoning committee at the end of its 95th National Executive Committee meeting. Headed by Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State, the committee was expected to recommend to the party whether zoning would help it return to power at the centre in 2023 or not and to state a position as to which zone between the North and the South should get the nod to produce the presidential candidate of the party.
The committee, comprising one representative each from the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, submitted its report to the National Executive Committee of the party last Wednesday.
The content of the leaked report caused wild reactions and condemnations from leaders from the southern region, but the leader of the committee, Ortom, debunked the alleged leakage and said that only the party’s NEC had the power to disclose the final decision on zoning.
Many Nigerians believe that the allegedly leaked report contained the true facts about the committee’s final decision because of two previous developments in the party. One was the report of the Bala Mohammed – led committee, which was set up immediately after the 2019 general election by the PDP to review the performance of the party at the election. The committee in its report said the party should jettison the zoning principle in the 2023 general election to give room for all the aspirants to achieve their aspirations.
The other development was the decision of the various presidential aspirants of the party across the six geopolitical zones to obtain presidential nomination forms even before the committee submits its report on zoning.
As it is now, the PDP is sitting on a keg of gunpowder as the issue of zoning has polarised the party and may affect the party’s performance in next year’s presidential election.
The zoning of political positions became a norm in the lexicon of the Nigerian political system after the PDP came into existence in 1998. The party introduced the zoning policy as a way of sharing top political positions. Thus, within the party structure when a presidential candidate emerges from the South, the North produces the Vice President. The positions of Senate President, Speaker of the House of Representatives and Secretary to the Government of the Federation, SGF and National Chairmanship of the party are also zoned to various regions. To achieve this, the country was divided into six geopolitical zones, namely, North-West, North-East, South-South, North-Central, South- West and South-East.
So as the nation gets set for the forthcoming general election, the issue of which zone should produce the next president remains a source of conflict. The Southern Governors Forum, comprising both APC and PDP Governors in the southern part of the country, had announced that the next President of the country must come from the South, while some northern elements also said that Buhari’s successor must come from the North. Some people believe that to achieve the desire of electing a credible person as presidential candidate, the position should be thrown open to all the geopolitical zones.
Those who support zoning and those against it seem to be arrogantly presenting their arguments and the two camps are maintaining a hard-line posture.
Those opposed to zoning in the next election are of the opinion that it is mentioned in the PDP’s constitution, but that in the prevailing circumstances the best thing for the party is to leave it open for everybody.
They are of the opinion that once the process is free and fair, whoever emerges will be seen as a credible candidate, but if it is zoned to the North, southerners will be angry and if zoned to the South, some northerners will feel indifferent when the time comes for the general campaign.
If the North is shut out, they believe you are indirectly telling them that they do not matter. One thing is for the ticket to be won by someone, the other thing is for the person to win the general election. This is the argument of Aminu Tambuwal and Bukola Saraki. Some people however believe that the argument is self-serving because of both aspirants’ ambitions.
Yet, some people are saying that, to be fair to the north, southerners have used up the PDP’s slot. Former Presidents Good Jonathan and Olusegun Obasanjo did six and eight years, respectively, which makes it 14 years. Yar’Adua only lasted two years. When people talk of the PDP being in power for 16, they are referring to 14 years of southern presidency. So those who are complaining also have a point about the North having it.
To many analysts, because of what is happening now and to put the matter to rest, the ticket should be thrown open. They are of the opinion that it will be better to have internal wrangling, which the presidential primary will resolve afterwards than to have a presidential primary that is peaceful but will lead to a crisis during the general campaign.
Those who say that zoning must be adopted are of the view that the South, particularly the South-East, has not produced the President since the advent of democratic rule in 1999. For the sake of fairness, equity and justice, it should be the turn of the South-East to rule.
While speaking with THEWILL, a former National Deputy Chairman of the PDP, Chief Bode George, who is also a member of the zoning committee, said the PDP today is facing an unexpected situation where it is not in power and how that will affect its zoning policy.
“I don’t believe we have jettisoned the rotational presidency. What they have done is to reposition to give everybody the opportunity to participate, it is very uncommon. If I can back-up a little bit, historically, how did we come about zoning? Because if you don’t understand why that one was accepted, you wouldn’t know the reason why people are playing this kind of game.
“The founding fathers sat together when General Abdulsalam Abubakar was trying to hand over and they said ‘Look, let us be serious with our nation. What has been the major setback in this country?’ It has been that in the North, the minorities were to be seen and that is all.
“In the South, it was the same thing. So the founding fathers, Chief Bola Ige from the South-West and Pa Alex Ekwueme from the South-East, for example, were people who would not get in the same room and discuss politically. So, the G9 wanted to find out what exactly had been the major setback in the progress of our nation and they thought the majority would always have their way. The minorities are to be seen and not heard. So they came up with this brilliant idea that let us divide Nigeria into six geopolitical zones so that you have three in North (North-Central, North-East, and North-West) and in the South, you have South-East, South-South and the South-West.
“With these geo-political zones, they sat back and said, ‘Look, there are six top positions in the government: The President, the Vice President, Senate President, Speaker of the House of Reps, Secretary to the Government of the Federation and National Chairman of the party.’ So there are six geopolitical zones and six top positions.
“Nobody, whether you are minority or majority, will go home without something to show to their people. So that sense of commitment was established. But when you look at it like that, after eight years, all the positions in the South will go to the North and all the positions in the North will come to the South. But the mistake they made was that and it is natural, you know, you can’t find solutions to all problems, especially when it is a developing country; even developed countries do have problems. But what the founders didn’t consider was that a situation could come up where you will have another political party that can produce the president, you know it wasn’t in our political equation. So when the APC now produced the president and he was from the North, what happened to our zoning arrangement? We never factored that in our political equations.
“Now President Buhari of the APC has been in power for eight years and he is from the North, how will that affect the zoning in the PDP?. Our founding fathers didn’t put that into consideration and that is why we are having the current problem,” he said.
Also speaking with THEWILL, another BoT member of the PDP, Chief Ebenezer Babatope said that whatever decision taken by the NEC of the party would be acceptable to him.
“The argument for and against the zoning of the presidential ticket is solid. But it is better to wait and let the NEC of the party tell us their decision. Their decision is final and it will be binding on all,” he said.
About the Author
AYO ESAN, has been actively reporting and analyzing political events for different newspapers for over 18 years. He has also successfully covered national and state elections in Nigeria since the inception of this democracy in 1999.
