As 2023 Presidency Goes South, South East Zone Deserves It Most!

South East potential presidential hopefuls

 

The recommendation of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Committee on the party’s zoning arrangement which recommended that the national chairman of the party would come from the North is the clearest indication that the presidential candidate of the party would come from Southern Nigeria.

This decision was contained in a communique issued following the meetings of the committee held in Enugu and Abuja.

“The decision of the PDP Zoning Committee is in line with the Constitution of the party on zoning and rotation of party and national offices in the interest of justice, equity, and fairness,” the statement reads. “Consequently, the current offices being held by officers in the southern zones of the country, namely South West, South East, and South South zones, should swap places with the offices currently in the northern zones of Nigeria, namely North West, North East, and North Central zones,” the statement continued.

The committee headed by Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu State, with Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom, and Zamfara State Deputy Governor, Mahdi Mohammed, as deputy chairman and secretary respectively, was constituted on September 9, and given the mandate to zone national offices to be contested by all PDP members at the party’s forthcoming national convention. PDP’s National Executive Committee had announced October 30 to commence the exercise.

The mandate of the committee does not include zoning of the offices of the president, vice president, as well as other executive and legislative offices in the country.

However it is common practice in the PDP in its 16 years leadership of Nigeria from 1999-2015 that whenever the national chairman comes from the North, the presidency heads South. This practice has also been maintained by the All Progressives Congress (APC) that put a stop to PDP’s national leadership of the country in 2015.

What the PDP Zoning Committee recommended with respect to the chairmanship position going North, which invariably paves way for Southern presidential candidate in 2023 is in line with the clamour for Southern President in the next election championed by Southern Governors Forum perhaps out of concern that by 2023, President Muhammadu Buhari, a northerner would have spent eight years in office, yet some northern elite want the region to retain power.

On Tuesday, May 11, 2021, 17 Governors of the Southern States of Nigeria met in Asaba, Delta State to discuss issues of common interest and one of their resolutions was that the next president of Nigeria must come from the South.

The Southern Governors met again on July 5 where they also reiterated that Nigeria’s next president should be from the southern part of the country. A communique issued at the end of the meeting, which held in Lagos , also reaffirmed the Forum’s commitment to the unity of the country. “The Forum reiterates its commitment to the politics of equity, fairness, and unanimously agreed that the presidency of Nigeria be rotated between southern and northern Nigeria and resolved that the next president of Nigeria should emerge from the south,” Rotimi Akeredolu, Ondo State governor, said on behalf of the Southern Governors Forum (SGF).

Not yet done, the Southern Nigeria governors on September 16, 2021 insisted that the next President of Nigeria must come from the Southern part of Nigeria in the spirit of justice, equity and fairness. The meeting was held in Enugu, the capital of Enugu State.

Nigerians were however jolted when on September 27, 2021, Governors of Nigeria’s northern states rejected the principle of rotational presidency, saying it is against the constitution of the country. They stated this after a meeting of the Northern Governors’ Forum (NGF) in Kaduna.

The chairman of the forum, Plateau State Governor Simon Lalong, issued a statement on the outcome of the meeting. He said, “Some Northern States Governors had earlier expressed views for a power-shift to the three geo-political zones in the South with a view to promoting unity and peace in the nation. “Notwithstanding their comments, the Forum unanimously condemn the statement by the Southern Governors Forum that the Presidency must go to the South. “The statement is quite contradictory with the provision of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (1999) as amended that the elected President shall:- score the majority votes; score at least 25% of the votes cast in 2/3 States of the Federation.”

The backlash they got outside and within the North forced the Northern Governors to beat a retreat. Left to mend the damage was the governor of Kaduna State, Malam Nasir El-Rufai who while speaking with select broadcast journalists said that the Northern Governors were not opposed to the power going South, since some of them have earlier subscribed to Southern Presidency in 2023, adding that what they were against was the use of the word “Must” by Southern Governors in canvassing for Southern Presidency.

With the PDP taking the lead by reserving the presidency for the South while the North produces the national chairman, it is expected that the ruling party would follow their example. Already all of the people that have declared interest for the APC national chairmanship position ahead of their national convention are northerners including former governor of Borno State, Senator Ali Modu Sheriff and former governor of Nasarawa State, Senator Umaru Al-Makura, among others.

Now that it has become obvious that the South would produce the next president, the unity of the South is going to be tested. Also to be tested is its claim that the region deserves the presidency for fairness, equity and justice. Southern Governors belief in fairness, equity and justice, will be tested very soon to see if they will apply it in choosing between the South East, South South and South West zones which zone deserves to produce the next president.

Earlier in a piece titled, “2023: Road Map To Southern President Without Conservative North’s Support”, and published shortly after the Southern Governors meeting in Asaba, I posited that the South can produce the next president without conservative North’s support, IF THE SOUTH IS UNITED.

The unity of the South would soon be tested. First, the South West has produced President Olusegun Obasanjo for eight years and by 2023 Professor Yemi Osinbajo would have been vice president for eight years, making a total of 16 years that South West has held sway in Aso Rock Villa, the zone should in the spirit of justice, equity and fair play, step aside from the presidency allotted to the South in 2023. The national leader of APC, Bola Ahmed Tinubu who is recuperating in London, and whose London home has become a Mecca of sort as “President In Waiting” should be told in no uncertain terms by South West leaders to jettison his presidential ambition for the common good of the South and take care of his health.

In fact Tinubu and South West should be in the forefront of campaign for the South East to produce the next president from the South if they sincerely believe in justice, equity and fair play. This is because the South East since 1999 has never produced a president or vice president, while their South South neighbour has produced vice president for three years and president for five years.

It would be unfair and hypocritical of the South West which would have been in power for 16 years in 2023 to still demand another eight years for Tinubu or any other person from the region when it is known for its opposition to Northern domination. Is the South ready to replace Northern domination with South West domination?

Even though much of the South West are APC, they should reach out to their APC colleagues in the South East who are presidential materials and support one of them, that is the only way to show that they believe in justice, fairness and equity and not just mouthing this ideal when it is convenient to use it to make the north cede power to the South.