New Telegraph

2023 Zoning, Presidency: APC, PDP play mind games

•Why opposition party zoned chairmanship to north

 

The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the main opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) are playing mind games on each other, barely a year to 2023 presidential primary elections.

 

The affairs of the ruling party have for over a year now been ran by an unelected body, known as National Convention Planning Extraordinary Caretaker Committee, which is headed by Yobe State Governor, Mai Mala Bunu.

 

The party has severally shifted its elective national convention, obviously waiting for the PDP to hold its own. PDP has fixed its elective national convention for October 30 and 31, but limited its zoning committee to decide only on national offices.

 

Although, the committee agreed on zoning and rotation of party and national offices between the north and south, its Chairman, Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, said it does not include “zoning of the offices of the President, Vice President and other executive and legislative offices of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”

 

A party source told Sunday Telegraph that PDP decided to be silent on the zoning of the presidency “because it is not expedient, being an opposition party, for PDP to decide on the presidency before the APC.

 

“The outgoing National Chairman of our party is from the south. So, traditionally and in accordance with our party constitution, that position should go to the north, and that’s what the Ugwuanyi committee just did.

 

“If you come to the presidency, our last presidential candidate in 2019 is from the north but that does not mean that we are going to choose the (presidential) candidate from the south.

 

No, because the last president of the country on the platform of the PDP is from the south.

 

“So this is a riddle for the APC; let them go and crack it.” Sunday Telegraph gathered that the decision of the PDP to zone the chairmanship to the north is to douse the political tension in the country, particularly in the South, where agitation for presidency is most fervent.

 

According to the source, retaining chairmanship in the South might be misinterpreted to mean that the presidency goes to the north, and this will not be good for the party.

 

Already, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, a pan Igbo sociocultural organisation has threatened to instigate mass defection from PDP if the party retains its chairmanship in the South.

 

“There has been rumoured plan by a South East governor to defect and Anambra governorship will hold on November 6. So, you can guess what would happen if there was a pronouncement that South will produce the chairmanship.

 

“There was a time all the South East governors were PDP; the number went down to four, and later three.

 

At the moment, we have only two PDP governors from the region, and you know what  that means if the party fails to consider the people’s feelings. It will be bad for us. “But that does not mean our presidential ticket has been zoned to the south.

 

There is the Bala Mohammed committee report, which has not been implemented. When the chairmanship issue is settled, we will come to that report,” the source explained.

 

The Mohammed committee in its report submitted to the PDP leadership in March this year, noted that, “in line with certain unwritten conventions of the nation’s history, many people think that for fairness and equity, the North-East and South- East geo-political zones that have had the shortest stints at the presidency should be given special consideration in choosing the presidential flag bearer of the party for the 2023 elections.

 

“While we admit that this is a strong argument, we should not lose sight of the fact that Nigeria is endowed with many capable and very experienced leaders in every part of the country.

 

“Moreover, the exigencies of the moment demand that nothing should be compromised in choosing the leader with the attributes to disentangle the country from the present quagmire.

 

“Therefore, we think that every Nigerian from every part of the country should be given the opportunity to choose the best candidate through a credible primary election, as a way of institutionalising a merit-based leadership recruitment process for the country.”

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