Will APC’s Zoning of Presidency to South Rattle PDP?

The move by the All Progressives Congress to zone its presidency to the South may have thrown the Peoples Democratic Party off-balance, Adedayo Akinwale writes

After months of dilly-dallying, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has decided to brace the odds by fixing March 26, 2022 as the new date for its national convention. The March 26 date was agreed after several postponements following the intense horse-trading, ahead of 2023 general election.

The APC governors reached the agreement after a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa where he gave his consent for the party to use the consensus arrangement to elect new party executives.

The Kaduna State Governor, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai told journalists after the meeting that the ruling party had agreed on a zoning formula that would swap offices previously held between North and South. By this arrangement, all offices that were occupied by northerners in the last NWC will go to the South, and vice versa, in the coming dispensation.

“We have agreed on a zoning formula for all the six geo-political zones. Essentially, northern zone will have the positions the south has had in the last NWC, and vice versa. It is a very simple, equitable, and fair formula. We will now go back and consult at the zonal level and look at the positions that are available and the process of the convention preparation we started in earnest. So, by the grace of God, on the 26th of March, we would have done our national convention,” the Kaduna governor explained.

It was against this background that political observers believed that it was an indication that the ruling party had zoned its presidential ticket to the southern part of the country.

Interestingly, the APC appears to be playing a rather smarter card, given the current mood of the nation for power to shift to the southern Nigeria.

This is why political observers are of the opinion that the decision might have put the opposition PDP in a state of confusion.

The main opposition party which had initially followed the same route by zoning its chairmanship to the North, later derailed and contemplated throwing its presidential ticket open.

PDP’s current moves will obviously put the north at advantage.

However, the Bauchi State Governor, Senator Bala Mohammed, has declared that the zoning of the presidency to the South by the ruling party does not pose any threat to the main opposition party.

But a chieftain of the APC and the Director General of Voice of Nigeria (VON), Mr. Osita Okechukwu, argued that the governor got it wrong on all fronts. He said the governor’s disposition shows the lack of dynamism in the political thinking of PDP

He pointed out that the opposition party had shown that it was incapable of upstaging APC, especially when the unity and prosperity of Nigeria is not uppermost in their calculations.

Okechukwu stated: “Methinks if the statement credited to him is correct, His Excellency, Bala Mohammed and by extension PDP, is simply being opportunistic by saying that APC’s zoning of Presidency to the South is not a threat to the PDP, because if we put it to the North, it will give us more electoral victory. That’s ethnic chauvinism, simple.

“The Bauchi State governor and PDP seem to forget that Nigerians are fair-minded and uphold justice and equity in their voting preferences. That was why the late Moshood Abiola of Social Democratic Party (SDP), defeated Alhaji Bashir Tofa in his Kano State home in 1993. In 2023, Nigerians are going to repeat that feat by acknowledging President Muhammadu Buhari and APC’s decision to do the right things for national unity peace and progress.”

Okechukwu emphasised that the doctrine of swap of offices between the north and the south was a masterstroke by Mr. President for the good of the APC and Nigerians.

“It is not only a threat to our sister political party, the PDP, but also signals their imminent defeat. My friend (governor’s) reaction seems inspired by a sense of defeatism and a phobia for the APC. After just seven years in opposition, PDP has retained its character of deception, duplicity, selfishness, promise and fail; otherwise how can a rational political party flagrantly and unscrupulously breach its constitution, which expressly ingrained zoning?” he queried.

The VON DG expressed confidence that Nigerians cannot forget in a hurry how PDP nurtured Nigeria towards becoming the World Poverty Capital, gross unemployment and palpable insecurity by their squander mania and share-the-money syndrome which became its slogan.

“Or do we forget the less than transparent sale of national assets and State-owned Enterprises, where the sordid agreements like that of DISCOs are more or less tailored by tenant for the federal government, who is supposed to be the landlord.

The tenancy-tailored agreements had made it impossible to unbundle the non-performing DISCOs and free Nigerians from the yoke. That is the darkness we cannot easily overcome. One flatly disagrees with those who say that APC and PDP are the same, because whereas our great party invested in critical infrastructure, PDP shared Nigeria’s money for temporary happiness, he said.

On his part, a political analyst, Mr. Jide Ojo told THISDAY that APC would be digging its own grave if it decides to retain the power in the north. He was of the opinion that for the sake of equity, fairness and justice that the presidency should go to the south.

He stated: “That (zoning) it is in tandem with equity, justice and fairness. We all know that since 1999, especially since the advent of the fourth republic, there is an unwritten rule, a gentleman’s agreement to rotate power between the north and the south. So, even when APC was dilly-dally and was not forthcoming about the power shift to the south, I knew they will be digging their own burial ground if they should allow power to be retained in the north.

“Recall that the whole argument that led to the defeat of Goodluck Jonathan was the fact that he pledged to do one term which is to do the second term of Umaru Musa Yar’Adua and people like Babangida Aliyu, the Governor of Niger State actually challenged him not to seek re-election after his 2011- 2015 term.

“So, the issue is about equity justice and fairness or what we could call inclusive governance. I think this will just make the PDP to behave itself because any attempt to do otherwise – throw the game open to all comers, or maybe do a micro zoning to North-east in order to favour Atiku Abubakar will be counter-productive. So, I think it is just for the purpose of that that I see the swapping of all political offices between North and South as Mallam El-Rufai said yesterday or thereabouts.”

While many are of the view that the decision of the APC to go South will attract sympathy votes across party lines from electorate in the region, it remains to be seen if PDP will still throw it ticket open.