S’East Splits as PDP Zoning Committee Meets Thursday

*Anyim, Chidoka, others insist chairman should go north
*Onaiwu advises Jonathan not to defect

Chuks Okocha

The political climate in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is presently gripped by anxiety, twists and horse-trading, as the South-east caucus of the party is already divided over the chairmanship of the party ahead of Thurs­day’s meeting of the National Convention Committee on Zon­ing, headed by Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu State.

The current heat in the party was heightened, because the outcome of the zoning convention committee would determine the way the presidential ticket of the party would go.

Already, the southeast is divided over whether to vote for the national chairman to go north or south. If the national chairman was zoned to the north, chances that the presidential candidate of the PDP would go to the south would become brighter.

The committee was initially made up of 44 members, but was expanded with four others to bring the total membership to 48. The new members were two from the National Assembly, female and a youth.

Each of the zone has eight members each with an administrative secretary who has no voting eligibility.

According to pre-meeting conferences held ahead of Thursday, 30 members out of the 48 had agreed that the office of the National chairman of the party should be zoned to the south.

Out of the six geopolitical zones, the zones that agreed that the national chairman of the party should be zoned to the south were north central, north west, north east and south west zones.

In the south east, however, there is a split, out of the eight members, the former senate president, Anyim Pius Anyim and a former minister of Aviation, Osita Chidoka as well as two other members said, the office of the National Chairman should be zoned to the north, whereas four other members said it should be zoned to the south.

They premised their reason on the fact that it would be unfair for members of the zone with presidential ambitions to wait till zoning to declare their aspirations, even as one of those against zoning the office of national chairman said, “We don’t want a food is ready president.”

On its side, the members of the committee from South-south insisted that the office of the national chairman should not only be zoned to the south but should be micro zoned to the South-south, as they have a national chairman, whose tenure is yet to end but should not have his right to contest abridged.

A source close to the meeting said by implication of the pre-zoning meeting, that in a worst case scenario, the office of the national chairman would be zoned to the south since 30 members have already agreed on the voting pattern
It is expected that after the Thursday meeting, an announcement would be made on the zoning of offices for the National Working Committee (NWC) in the October 30 and 31 national convention.
The committee, which has Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue as Deputy Chairman and Mahdi Aliyu Mohammed, Zamfara State Deputy Governor as Secretary, has been besieged by several requests by party leaders across the six geo-political zones on the need to zone key positions in the National Working Committee (NWC) to their region.

Though there are several positions in the NWC, the focus is on the national chairman of the party, which is currently occupied by Elder Yemi Akinwonmi, the Deputy National Chairman (South), who stepped in after a court in Rivers State, sacked Uche Sec­ondus, the National Chairman.

Already, leaders of the party in the six states of South West have sent a strong message to the leadership of the party on the need to zone the position of national chairman to the region.
Though some stakeholders in the party are rooting for the next national chairman to come from the northern part of the country, they may not have the numerical strength to carry home their desire
At the same time, there are stakeholders who in line with the mood in the nation calling for the presidential ticket to be thrown open for all aspirants instead of zoning it to any section of the country.

THISDAY gathered there has been clamour for the South to produce the national chairman with focus on the South West, however, that seemed to be chang­ing with the position of some PDP governors in the Southern Governors’ Forum that the next president should emerge from the South.

There are also some, who have been calling for both the national chairmanship position and the presidential ticket to be thrown open so that the best candidates will emerge.

The expectation, it was learnt, was that after its meeting, the committee on zoning would announce its position soon. This is because the convention is just a month away and there is no time to waste.

The source said that they have been given as­surance that the dates would not be shifted so those interested in occupying elective offices in the NWC needed to know where they belong so that they could kick start campaign in earnest.

Meanwhile, a statement on Tuesday by a former Minister of Aviation, Kema Chikwe as Chairman and Mark Jacobs as secretary titled, “Position of Forum of Former PDP National Working Committee Members Ahead of October National Convention”, stated that the “PDP must elect a credible, competent, independent-minded national chairman.”

They forum, which consisted of former PDP NWC members and other former national officers of the party since inception, said as a body of highly experienced and committed party national officers, they were deeply concerned with the leadership issues in the party, especially, as they sought solutions with the 2021 National Convention slated for October 30, 2021.
Against this background, they asked that the convention must be free, fair, transparent and credible to eliminate avoidable frictions in the party.

In a related development, a founding Director General of the PDP Governors Forum and leading political communications consultant, Earl Osaro Onaiwu, has advised former President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan on the danger of defecting to the All Progressives Congress (APC) otherwise he would be sacrificing his global brand on the alter of politics.

Onaiwu, who cautioned Jonathan that defecting to APC was like dancing to the beat of the uncertain sound of the political drumming, stated that to dump his party and join the ruling party ostensibly with the intention of contesting to be president again after the end of the tenure of the current government would be his greatest political mistake ever.

“The political eyes of the nation has been turning in the last few days to a viral conversation about the former president Jonathan being wooed by the ruling to decamp from PDP, the party that brought him to power, to the APC, a party that butted him out of power.

“Many political commentators, concerned friends and loyal supporters of the former president are divided on the true position of the rumour. But to analysts of political developments, the power of a rumour of this nature cannot be easily discounted,” Onaiwu stated.

Explaining the consequences of such a move, he said, “That will be a bad presidential precedent and a record on the reverse gear of civility. All over the world, it has never been heard, where a President in a democratic government jumped ship from his own party to the any party, particularly, the party that ousted him from party, for whatever reason.

“The office of the President is different in outlook and reverence from the governors and assembly members, who have form the habit of changing parties for their selfish interests or for a lack of ideology. Jonathan is now a global brand and should not sacrifice that hard earned recognition at the altar of partisan politics,” he said.