2023: Dropping zoning may spell doom for PDP, Anyim warns

Former Senate President and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential hopeful, Senator Anyim Pius Anyim, has warned the party against discarding zoning in choosing its presidential candidate, saying the decision may weaken the party. He said his concern about zoning was not personal but the need to protect the party from flouting its constitution. Community protest […]

Former Senate President and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential hopeful, Senator Anyim Pius Anyim, has warned the party against discarding zoning in choosing its presidential candidate, saying the decision may weaken the party.

He said his concern about zoning was not personal but the need to protect the party from flouting its constitution.

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“This is a constitutional matter. Some people may get away with it but in the meantime, it will weaken our party. This makes it a concern to some of us,” he said.

Anyim, a former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, spoke on the Political Roundtable on Mainland FM in Lagos.

Daily Trust reports that there has been a raging controversy in the PDP over zoning amidst speculations that the party had decided to throw open the race.

However, the former Senate President said for equity and fairness, the position must be ceded to the South and South East in particular.

He said, “I have no personal concern about zoning but I have corporate concern about zoning because it is a constitutional matter within the PDP. So when an organisation is not in a position to follow the constitution, the worry I have is that some people may get away with it in the interim but in the long term, it will weaken that organisation which will no longer have the power to criticise its members.

“So the fact that it is a constitutional matter in PDP, it makes it much more concerning to some of us if it is not followed.”

Anyim, who also spoke on the move by some northern aspirants to come up with a consensus arrangement, said the elders of the South East have not initiated such a discussion in the zone.

However, he said the aspirants had met and were working together to bring the ticket to the South East because it is the turn of the zone to produce the next president.

The former Senate President said while he would not compare himself with any of the aspirants, he has the national exposure and the cognate experience having presided over the Senate and headed the engine room of the presidency in the past.