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This is coming at a time when various interest groups in the party are intensifying efforts in lobbying all party organs for either the dumping or reaffirmation of zoning. The arrangement has produced two presidents from the North and the South between 1999 and 2010.
Reliable sources in PDP revealed that in order to end the debate as to which zone, between the North and South, the party would cede the presidency to next year, the PDP echelon has decided to, for the first time, bring up the matter for discussion. The various discussions, when collated, would determine whether President Goodluck Jonathan would be free to contest next year’s election based on party’s position or do so, irrespective of the position, as other politicians, in the past, did.
Saturday Sun gathered that the PDP high command has resolved to set the machinery in motion for the party to officially take a stand on zoning, ahead of the national convention, where the presidential candidate of the party for next year’s election would be picked.
The plan
It was gathered that the PDP would, in the next couple of days, put zoning on the agenda of a meeting of its National Executive Committee (NEC), as the first move to finally handle the zoning controversy. The NEC is made up of national officers of the PDP and state chairmen.
At the NEC meeting, the issue of zoning would be thrown open for members to comment. After those for or against zoning would have spoken, it was gathered, the matter would be put to vote, for the official position of the NEC to be determined.
Also, the PDP would convene a meeting of the National Working Committee (NWC), which is made of national officers of the party, state chairman and secretaries, state governors, president and vice president.
At the expected NWC meeting, PDP officials would throw the issue of zoning open, where all members would be free to air their views. Sources revealed that after every member would have taken a stand on zoning, at the NWC meeting, the matter would be put to vote, for the august body to take a definite stand.
The PDP also plans to convene the Board of Trustees (BoT) meeting to also discuss the vexed issue. The BoT, which has former President Olusegun Obasanjo as its chairman, is made of party elders. Each senatorial zone in the country produces a member of the BoT, which means that each state has three representatives, while the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja has one representative.
At the BoT meeting, sources say, all members would be free to air their views on zoning, after which a vote is expected to be taken to know the official position of the board.
It was learnt that the PDP would collate the various positions of NEC, NCW and the BoT, to arrive at a definite position on zoning. The party would not, however, make its official position public until at its mini- convention expected in the next couple of weeks.
The mini convention
Saturday Sun was informed that the PDP would hold a mini-convention towards the end of September or early October in Abuja, where the party’s constitution would be amended. Also, at the mini-convention the party’s position on zoning may then be revealed.
Portions expected for amendment in the PDP constitution, it was gathered, are provisions on the chairmanship of the BoT. At present, the constitution, which was amended at the instance of Obasanjo when Colonel Ahmadu Ali was PDP chairman, provides that the position of BoT chairman would only be occupied by a former president. At present, Obasanjo is the only former president in the current democratic dispensation.
Before the PDP constitution was amended, any notable member of the party could be elected BoT chairman. In the past, former Vice President Dr. Alex Ekwueme and former Minister of Works, Chief Tony Anenih, had occupied the position of BoT chairman. But with the current constitution, only Obasanjo is qualified to be there.
It is not only the provision on the occupation of the post of BoT chairman that would be up for amendment in the mini-convention. It was learnt that the powers of the BoT chairman are likely to be whittled down, as it was in the early days of PDP until Obasanjo influenced the amendment and gave the office more powers.
Sources revealed that the PDP would also, at the mini-convention, amend the provision on the selection of delegates to the state congresses and national convention of the party. The provision that commissioners and advisers of state governors are automatic delegates to state congresses and national convention may be changed.
It was gathered that the mini-convention may make public the official position of the party on zoning.
If the PDP takes a stand on zoning, the source revealed, the party may not sell nomination forms to aspirants from the zone the arrangement does not favour. It was gathered that this was the case in 1999 when the late Alhaji Abubakar Rimi insisted that he would contest for the ticket of the party at PDP maiden national convention in Jos. PDP sources said that although Rimi obtained the ticket, the party eventually returned his money. Also, the party wrote the late politician stating why the money he paid for the nomination form was returned.
However, sources said that some elements in the PDP are pressing for the party to hold only one convention, where the constitution would be amended and the presidential candidate picked.
Option B
PDP sources revealed that if the national executives of the party discover that the plan to have the party, through the NEC, NWC and BoT, take a definite stand on zoning would cause factionalisation, which could cost it the next election, the party would be silent on zoning.
Reliable sources said that in the event that this option is settled, the party would pretend that there is no controversy and allow all aspirants, irrespective of their geopolitical zones, to collect nomination forms for the presidential ticket for an open contest.
The option of pretension, it was gathered, was what the PDP adopted in 2003 and 2007 when politicians from all the geopolitical zones aspired to be the presidential candidate of the party. In 2003, when Obasanjo sought second term tickets, politicians from the North vied against him. Also, in 2007, when the late Umar Musa Yar’Adua picked the party’s ticket, politicians from the South collected nomination forms and vied.
If the PDP settles for this option, President Goodluck Jonathan may have no moral burden to go ahead with his perceived interest in contesting next year’s presidential election. Delegates to the national convention would then decide who would be the standard bearer of the party.
Lobbyists at work
Not wanting to lose out, interest groups, whether they are for or against zoning, have intensified lobby to ensure that the party takes a definite stand on the matter.
Sources revealed that top politicians from the North, made of former military president, General Ibrahim Babangida, ex-Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, former Minister of Finance, Mallam Adamu Ciroma and others, have been meeting with elders of PDP across the country to press for the retention of zoning. The group has also met with the National Chairman, Dr. Okwesilieze Nwodo, to make its position known.
Politicians opposed to the retention of zoning, especially those agitating for Jonathan to contest, are equally lobbying the PDP leadership to adopt the Option B, so that the president would be free to run.
The fear for chaos
Meanwhile, constitutional lawyer, Mr. Fred Agbaje, believes that next year’s elections may end in crisis due to the late appointment of Prof. Attahiru Jega as INEC chairman.
According to Agbaje, the right person to make a change in INEC is Jega but his appointment came at the wrong time. He stated further that if it took Nigeria four years to organize the 2007 election that was marred by monumental fraud, having less than a year for the forthcoming election might not augur well for the country.
“There is a Yoruba saying that if you prepare 20 years for madness, how many years would it take you to practice it? If it took us four years to organise the 2007 elections and yet there was monumental electoral fraud, is it less than one year you will organise 2011 election? I’m not a prophet of doom, but I can foresee a problem for 2011 election. Jega who we believe could make a change, his appointment came rather too late. They picked the right person at the wrong time,” he says.
On the old voters’ register, the lawyer states that it should be discarded and a new one that will guarantee a free and fair election compiled.
He said: “The old one has been so problematic and amount to electoral fraud. Therefore, we must distance ourselves from the old voters’ register and seek after a new one that will guarantee us free and fair election. Fixing the election timetable is like a situation between hen and the egg. One must precede the other. Voters’ registration must come first before election. I don’t want to see the name of the late Mohammed Bello or other dead persons in the new register. How are you sure the number of people we are speculating to vote are valid. It is therefore, from a premise that it is an invalid electoral register.”
To Agbaje, under no circumstance should the 2011 election be postponed. According to him, if the election should be postponed, it will amount to criminality to whosoever contemplates it.
“The constitution has made it clear that election to the office of president or governor must be conducted between 120 to 150 days. If that is true, constitution has taken cognisance that an administration should not exceed four years and that, whether we like it or not, election must be held. Whether a photocopy, legal or illegal, someone must be voted into office as president on May 29, 2011. Those who are calling for postponement of election must look for something else to do, if they are jobless. In the first instance, are they not conversant of the constitution on the ground of four years tenure? Even Professor Jega cannot ask for an extension because he knows its implication. Should the INEC chairman take his late appointment as an excuse to postpone the election, nobody is going to accept the alibi from him. And attempt to extend the election will amount to political and constitutional heresy.”
But if the election is by anyway postponed, who holds forth in the interim? Agbaje says it’s not definitely going to be President Goodluck Jonathan.
He said: “Goodluck will not be there during the period of break. Somebody else has to come there. Goodluck cannot be in the office. Even now that he is the incumbent president and the appointer of INEC chairman, he might have an overwhelming influence on Jega. It might surprise you that it will be a one-man horse race. Otherwise, why would they wait till 11th hour to appoint the INEC chairman?”
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