The agitation for zoning of the presidential ticket of the All Progressives Congress (APC) intensified yesterday.
Ondo State Governor Rotimi Akeredolu urged the ruling party to make a categorical statement on which zone should produce its next presidential candidate.
He said the principle of rotation guided the party’s decision at the recent national convention in Abuja.
Akeredolu maintained in a statement in Akure that it was the turn of the southern part of the country to produce the next president.
He said the adoption of a power shift would make the APC avoid self-inflicted crises ahead of next year’s election.
Also yesterday, Ijaw leader Chief Edwin Clark, former Senate Majority Leader Ali Ndume and Employment and Labour Minister Chris Ngige renewed their call for zoning in the spirit of equity, fairness and justice.
Urging the party leadership to make a pronouncement on zoning without delay, Akeredolu said: “It will be disingenuous for anyone to argue against rotation at this period.”
He added: “We must not keep our party men and women guessing on the position of the leadership of the party. This is the time to weigh in and take control of the process.
“No statement must suggest, even remotely, that the party harbours certain sentiments, which may predispose it to consider throwing the contest open. This is certainly not the time for equivocation. Equity dictates we take a stand.
“We cannot, therefore, afford any internal bickering, which holds the potential promise of causing distrust and militating against cohesion, harmony and the zeal to achieve set objectives.
“The current democratic dispensation is anchored on the unwritten convention driven by a principle of equity.
“Political expediency dictates, more appealingly, that while adhering to the spirit and letters of the laws guiding the conduct of elections and succession to political offices, we must do nothing capable of tilting the delicate balance against the established arrangement which guarantees peace and promotes trust.
“Our party just elected officers on the established principle of giving every part of the country an important stake in the political calculus.
“The focus has now shifted to the process, which will culminate in the participation of our party in the general elections scheduled for next year.
“All lovers of peace and freedom must do everything to eschew tendencies, which may predispose them to taking decisions which promote distrust and lead to a crisis, the end of which nobody may be able to predict.
“It is expected, fervently, that it will proceed to complete the process by limiting the propensities for disagreement to a region for possible micro-management. It is very expedient that we avoid self-inflicted crises before the general elections.”
Ndume who spoke on Channels yesterday, agreed with Akeredolu’s position, saying that it would be unfair for the party to do otherwise.
The senator, who said the principle of zoning was part of the federal character, added that zoning was adhered to during the election of party executives.
Ndume said: “I support the position of Governor Akeredolu 100 per cent. I adopt the counsel of the governor to the party.
“I believe in equity, fairness and justice. This, we did during the emergence of our national chairman. That was why nobody from the south contested for the chairmanship position of our party.
“In 2015, based on the principle of zoning, it was agreed that the presidency should be zoned to the north. And that was why most of those that contested were from the north. This time around, I don’t think that should change.”
Ndume dismissed the argument that zoning would disenfranchise some Nigerians.
He believes zoning and rotation are issues of equity under the principle of federal character, which according to him, covers both elective and appointive positions.
He added: “On the principles of fairness, justice and equity, we should allow the south to put forward their candidates and let the party members decide.”
He said though he was not at the top of the party affairs, he expressed confidence in President Muhammadu Buhari’s desire and determination to ensure justice and equity prevail.
When asked if the APC would heed Akeredolu’s call, Ndume said: “I am hopeful that the party under the leadership of Abdullahi Adamu, the APC chairman, will heed the counsel by Governor Akeredolu.”
He said Adamu was quoted out of context when he said the party has not taken a position on zoning.
He disagreed with the notion that if the PDP gives its ticket to a northern aspirant, the APC should also do the same.
He said as a northerner, many from the region, especially the poor, believe in equity and justice.
Lending his voice to the demand for a power shift, Ngige said it was in tandem with the agreement of the founding fathers of the APC when it was formed in 2014.
Ngige, who spoke with our reporter on phone on Tuesday, said: “My position on zoning is what the founding fathers agreed on and the subsequent organs of the party have been adopting and doing.
“For example, they decided that party positions in the South should go to the North and all in the North go to the South. That is what it is. There is no cause for alarm.
“The South should have the Presidency in 2023. That is what the founding fathers agreed and that is what our organs of the party had been implementing.
“Presidency North, chairman South and thereafter, Presidency South, chairman North. We have done chairman North during our convention.
“So, we are now operating for the elective offices, which the presidency is the numero uno. There is no cause for alarm.”
