From Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye, Abuja
The Southern and Middle Belt Leaders Forum (SMBLF) has cautioned political parties and stakeholders not to tinker with the zoning and rotation of political offices, especially, the presidency.
It warned that doing so would further threaten the nation’s unity.
This position was contained in a statement by Chief Edwin Clark, national leader, PANDEF and Chairman, SMBLF, Chief Ayo Adebanjo – Leader, Afenifere, Prof. George Obiozor, president-general, Ohanaeze Ndigbo and Pogu Bitrus, national president, Middle Belt Forum.
The SMBLF particularly took exception to a recent statement credited to the Chairman of the Northern Elders Forum, Alhaji Ango Abdullahi that zoning was dead and buried. It said it was unfortunate and absurd that Abdullahi and his NGF would make such twaddle.
“Are they now ready to dissolve the country? What has happened that zoning, which has been a sine qua non in the nation’s political progression has now become a dead and buried”issue, in the irrational contemplations of Ango Abdullahi and his co-travellers? Could it be due to the incapacity, insipidity and disastrous performance of the Buhari administration or the narcissistic desire to perpetuate Hausa/Fulani Hegemony?
“It has become necessary to underscore that Ango Abdullahi, with his established disposition of inconsistency and duplicity, is one of the people disturbing the polity and peace of Nigeria. A few days ago, this same Ango fumbled with the idea of a so-called consensus arrangement for Northern presidential aspirants, he has not come out of it. Now, he has sprung up with this reckless statement that zoning is dead and buried. Ango and his northern elders do not have the power to kill and bury zoning. If they want to kill and bury Nigeria, then we are ready for them!
“The history of zoning between the North and the South is well-known to everybody in this country and has been respected by all the major political parties in Nigeria.
“In the Second Republic, the National Party of Nigeria, (NPN) adhered to the policy of zoning. The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has also, since its formation in 1999, adhered to the zoning of principal elective offices.
“Most recently, in 2018, the PDP firmly observed the zoning arrangement by having only northern aspirants participate in the party’s presidential primary, which was held in Port Harcourt. Recall that 12 aspirants, all Northerners, including Senator Jonah Jang, Senator David Mark, Kabiru Turaki, Alhaji Sule Lamido, Alhaji Attahiru Bafarawa, Alhaji Ahmed Makarfi, Ibrahim Dankwambo, Alhaji Rabiu Kwankwaso, Dr. Bukola Saraki, Governor Aminu Tambuwal, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and Datti Baba Ahmed vied for the party’s ticket for the 2019 presidential election.
“Before then, all the PDP presidential aspirants (except David Mark, Aminu Tambuwal and Datti Baba Ahmed), and aspirants of other political parties, had interactive engagements, individually, with us, the Southern and Middle Belt Leaders Forum, to expound their plans for Nigeria, which was supported by the Northern Elders Forum headed by Ango Abdullahi who now wants zoning to be thrown overboard.
“Likewise, for the APC, only northerners contested the first presidential primaries of the party in 2014 in Lagos, including Muhammadu Buhari, Atiku Abubakar, Rabiu Kwankawso and late Sam Nda-Isaiah, except Owelle Rochas Okorocha who has become a routine presidential aspirant since 2003.
“More so, earlier this year, the nation and global audience were told by Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State on a national/satellite television station that zoning of the party and political elective offices exists in the APC. The governor further hinted that all the positions earlier held by the North would be swapped with the South and vice versa. And this was inclusive of the presidency. That was the reason why only northerners vied for the national chairmanship of the party, which was zoned to the North and micro zoned to the North Central, during the party’s National Convention in March this year.
“Sadly, we are now being told by the newly ‘imposed’ National Chairman of the APC, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, that the APC has not decided on the zoning of the presidency. Such a statement at this stage, with about 30 days to the presidential primaries, amounts to outright dishonesty and chicanery.”