Obinna Odogwu, Awka
Anambra Elders Consultative Forum (AECF), a governance conscience platform, has commended the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for declaring that it would not zone its ticket for the 2021 governorship election.
It said the party spoke its mind when it insisted that the selection must be on the basis of competence, credibility and capacity to deliver and not on conditions that promote mediocrity.
The Elders Forum, which rose from a crucial meeting in Ihiala, Anambra State on Monday night, also commended the leadership of the PDP “for respecting the wishes and aspiration of the people of Anambra by discarding zoning in its nomination process for the 2021 governorship election.”
In a communiqué issued at the end of the marathon meeting and jointly signed by Dr. Chudi Onochie and Chief Max Nzekwe, the forum’s chairman and secretary respectively, the elders counselled political parties to “respect the aspiration of the people of Anambra by sourcing for credible candidates from any part of the state.”
The forum, which has members from the three senatorial zones of the state, insisted that “the current collective aspiration of the Anambra people can only be realized through the enthronement of competence and merit and not by a restrictive system that breeds ineptitude and mediocrity in governance.”
It also said those “clamouring to zone the 2021 governorship position to a particular zone, are mostly incompetent, selfish and unpatriotic politicians, whose only credential for seeking elective office is being from a particular part of the state and not based on capacity or competence to deliver good governance to the people.
“Consultations across Anambra State have shown that zoning of elective positions is no longer compatible with the collective quest by the people of the state for the enthronement of competence which is sine-qua-non in their pursuit of strategic infrastructural development, wealth creation, human capital development, security and stability of the state.
“It is therefore regrettable and highly embarrassing for any son or daughter of Anambra and indeed Igboland, a people that have been complaining about lack of recognition for competence and merit in the national economic and political polity, to be clamouring for quota governor in Anambra as against the same competence and merit that we all advocate,” the forum said.