t is almost certain now that the successor to the outgoing embattled national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Prince Uche Secondus, will come from the northern part of the country.
If the recommendation of the party’s zoning committee saddled with the responsibility of zoning party offices, except the presidency, vice presidency , Senate presidency, and Speaker, to that effect is approved by the National Executive Committee, NEC, then the aspiration of former governor Olagunsoye Oyinlola to succeed Secondus would be stymied.
The change of leadership guard takes place in October, about seventeen clear months to the 2023 presidential poll.
But does that, by deduction and, in fact, by drawing conclusions, mean that the PDP has zoned the presidency to the southern part of the country?
The answer to the poser lies within the remit of the party to answer as it juggles and deploys its strategies, plans and tactics in a deliberate bid to snatch presidential power from the governing All Progressives Congress, APC, which has zoned its presidential slot to the South.
This is understandably so. President Muhammadu Buhari, a northerner, has been in the saddle since 2015 and will round off his tenure of eight years in 2023.
A day in politics is enough to restrategise and take steps that can fundamentally tinker with the political status quo.
Consequently, the PDP’s decision zoning the chairmanship to the north is not cast in stone. It can be scrambled by a stroke of mid-term convention in the event it becomes necessary to restrategise.
Meantime, in a communique on Thursday, the zoning committee, which had meetings in Enugu and Abuja and ceded the chairmanship sear to the North, said: “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.
“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.”
Headed by Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu State, and having Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom, and Zamfara State Deputy Governor, Mahdi Mohammed, as deputy chairman and secretary respectively, the Committee said its decision to zone the party’s offices did not in any way affect the executive and legislative offices in Nigeria.”
It stated that the zoning of offices within the PDP has traditionally been between the North and South of the country.
The communique stated: “We shall pass on our recommendations to the National Executive Committee of the party through the National Working Committee of the party.”
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