PDP’S DEVIL AND THE DEEP BLUE SEA
Peoples Democratic Party has a difficult choice to make on zoning, writes Bolaji Adebiyi
A screaming headline yesterday said the Peoples Democratic Party had thrown open its presidential ticket to all six zones of the federation. Quoting Abdullahi Ibrahim, its deputy national publicity secretary, the story said the party would give every part of the country the opportunity to bid for the top job.
The headline might be justified on the basis of the fact that Ibrahim spoke at a function at the party’s national secretariat where he stood for Iyorchia Ayu, the national chairman. This, however, does not make the claim the correct position of the party. Although it must be noted that the reporter gave the official an ample opportunity to separate his opinion from the official position, the deputy national publicity persisted in misrepresenting the party.
Being just a few months in office, Ibrahim must have been overexcited at the rare opportunity to represent his chairman. But clearly, he might not have familiarised himself with the conventions and the constitution of the party last amended in 2017 hence his open display of ignorance of the processes of the PDP.
His assertive comments were wholly misconceived within the context of the provisions of the PDP constitution and its decision-making processes, which require an extensive discussion of issues across the entire party structures before decisions are formally agreed and announced by an appropriate officer. Such a weighty issue as zoning of the presidential ticket that is still being canvassed across all platforms of the party could not have been entrusted to such a lowly officer to communicate to the public. So, Ibrahim is at best flying a kite for a caucus of the National Working Committee that wants to supplant the zoning policy of the party. This no doubt is an audacious move that is bound to fail.
As it has been argued elsewhere, given the PDP’s convention and constitution, it is too late in the day to begin to push the merit of the argument over zoning. Article 3 (c) of the party’s 2017 Constitution says, “The party shall pursue these aims and objectives by adhering to the policy of rotation and zoning of the party and public elective offices in pursuance of the principle of equity, justice and fairness.” It remains to be seen, therefore, how the presidential ticket of the party can be thrown open without an amendment to this provision.
By the PDP’s procedure, such a weighty decision would begin its journey from the NWC, which takes a memo to the National Caucus and the Board of Trustees and eventually to the National Executive Committee that would make a semi-final decision on behalf of the National Convention. Until these processes are followed it would be inappropriate to say this essentially meaningless clamour for an open contest for the party’s presidential ticket is the official position.
Interestingly the debate typifies the North-South divide in the country. While dominant supporters of the open contest are largely northerners, the proponents of zoning are southerners. Yet a decision on the matter would have to reckon with the political reality on the ground. Although the rival All Progressives Congress does not have rotation and zoning engraved in its constitution, a consensus appears to have been reached that with President Muhammadu Buhari completing two terms of eight years in office, it would be inequitable for another northerner to succeed him. Besides, a gentleman agreement that after him the ticket would go South has since been thrown up. For this reason, some heavyweight politicians in the South-east, believing that should the party allot the ticket to the South, the geopolitical zone may benefit from it have moved from the PDP to the APC.
To stem the tide, an agitation for the zoning of the ticket to the South arose in the PDP whose last president was Goodluck Jonathan, a southerner. Meanwhile, the argument is being made that if the APC allocates its ticket to the South, it would be more strategic for the PDP to hand its ticket to a politically savvy northerner given the region’s hefty electoral population. This perhaps is the oxygen feeding the clamour for an open contest in the main opposition party in the belief that given the North’s numerical strength in the party it could overwhelm the South.
Whatever the permutations are, the substantive issue is that the party’s constitution requires that the PDP adheres to the principles of rotation and zoning, meaning that the ticket would have to be allotted. This provision would appear to favour the North. Since the last president from the party was from the South, the corollary is that on the basis of rotation the next president would have to come from the North. This cannot happen unless the ticket goes North.
However, this would sail against the wind of national sentiment which favours a southern presidency given the eight years of Buhari, which clearly have heightened the political and religious divide in the country. Is it a wind the party would want to ride against? Not likely, and this would depend on the ability of the South to throw up a strong southern candidate that would be able to match the APC candidate.
On the other side is the rising profiles of Bola Tinubu, a former senator and two-term governor of Lagos State, who is also a dominant force in APC; and Yemi Osinbajo, learned silk, professor of Law and vice president of the Federal Republic, who has taken the full advantage of his office to issue mobilising political statements that project him as an aspirant to watch.
Does the PDP have such towering political figures in the South to match these two? Not really. But its political structure is no doubt awesomely well organised and spans the entire country much more than the ruling APC. If such machinery is put solidly behind a no-baggage candidate that has demonstrated competence in public office, the result may be intriguing and interesting to await.
Adebiyi, the managing editor of THISDAY Newspapers, writes from bolaji.adebiyi@thisdaylive.com
