PDP and the zoning gymnastics
He went on to say that even in 2003 and 2007, despite the agreement that the presidency was zoned to the South and later to the North, candidates from those ‘banned’ regions still contested for the office of the presidency. The president was right because each time there was one form of recalcitrance or the […]
He went on to say that even in 2003 and 2007, despite the agreement that the presidency was zoned to the South and later to the North, candidates from those ‘banned’ regions still contested for the office of the presidency. The president was right because each time there was one form of recalcitrance or the other. It is unfortunate that the president out of sheer desperation could descend so low and site examples of previous recalcitrance as his reason for distorting an existing party arrangement that did pay the PDP and its members whether legitimately or otherwise. There are lots of lessons learnt from that presidential misrepresentation.
Either that truly as was the case the president wasn’t in the know of how the entire arrangements and workings of the PDP were or put another way, does not seem to still understand the dynamics of power rotation and zoning as enshrined in their party’s constitution. It is clear that what the president was alluding to was the case of Abubakar Rimi in 1998 when he refused to heed the party’s decision that it had zoned the presidency to the South. Equally was the case with people like Barnabas Gemade and Abubakar Rimi in 2003, but it was clear that even at that the hierarchy and followership of the party knew very well that the Presidency was still for the south and as such all votes went towards the southern candidate, in that case, sitting President Olusegun Obasanjo as the beneficiary.
Despite the agitation and calls by the then PDP governors that Vice President Atiku Abubakar should run with his principal, the VP refused whose consequences were basically two. One, the retention of the sanctity of the PDP zoning arrangement and secondly the political travails which Atiku Abubakar himself suffered after the party rigged its way back to power during the 2003 presidential race. Again in 2007 when the PDP said the Presidency was coming up North, it was clear that quite a few people like Rochas Okorocha and other southerners did aspire to take the party’s ticket but the might of its decision to rotate took the Presidency to the North. Again, the death of President Yar’adua only further proved the case that after all the conspiracy theory which were alluded to as responsible for picking an ailing candidate was only intended at causing the confusion that the nation is in today.
It is far away from the truth that the Presidency was never zoned in the PDP. In fact the present situation which the president is alluding to simply exposes all other subsisting arrangements to ridicule. If this zoning is done away with and Goodluck Jonathan eventually becomes the president in 2011, all other arrangements would equally not need to be respected because the fundamental of them all has been breached.
My fear was further aggravated by that statement from the President. I am now fully convinced unless otherwise that we are placed in a very difficult situation as a people and as a nation. It shows clearly that we are under the rule of an unintelligent president who cannot understand the logic and dynamics of power configuration and sharing arrangement. Put another way, a leadership that is easily shaken by tremors of power politics in its desperation to hang on to power outside the prism of their party’s constitution. Does President Goodluck Jonathan and his cohorts understand the meaning of Article 7.2 (c) of their party’s constitution? I don’t expect even if other aspirants will come to the open and claim that the party’s aspirants never respected zoning that the President himself will come so low and tell the world this blatant untruth because Nigerians understood the circumstances and the recalcitrance that existed in the last three times that the party went to elect a presidential candidate.
I think what is important is for the President to maintain a dignified silence in view of his thirst to put the nation on the brink which the shylocks around him do clearly know is the reality but are so drunk to accept and to understand the implications of their actions and those of their principal.
Those who knew what happened in 2003 concerning the 14 PDP governors and Atiku Abubakar will attest to the fact that Atiku’s decision not to contest against his principal who definitely has lost all political credibility and the pressures from the governors were enough reasons and signals to have upturned the zoning arrangements of the party. It was that refusal that gave rise to the protracted hatred between General Obasanjo and Governors James Ibori and DSP Alamieyeseigha whose end result benefitted Goodluck Jonathan in the first instance by becoming the governor of Bayelsa State and not too long after, the Vice President.
Today as we speak, James Ibori is in exile while others who went equally on self exile for fear of probably the unknown under the Yar’adua government are now returning as heroes. Nasiru El-Rufai is one and just this week, Ahmadu Muazu, the former governor of Bauchi State. I think Nigerians are not yet ready for democracy. We are yet unable to build institutions. The role of individual actors by far supersedes the indispensability of institutions that ought to be sacrosanct. The soldier in our clime is more intuitional than the barrack. This is an abnormality that will have to be corrected if the nation is to chart a course of development and stability.
In my view why the only game in town seems to be Goodluck Jonathan is the repressive tendencies of the government whose elementary perspectives were deployed to Dutse and Ilorin a few weeks ago as a pointer to those governors who dare oppose the ‘he’ that must be obeyed.
Obasanjo did try a worst form of repression and fell by the way side despite his feelings of indispensability, messianic instincts and foolish pride. Obasanjo stood for election in 1999 and 2003. He had worn thick skin against the rough weathers of Nigerian politics and yet failed woefully in his deployment of crude force to force compliance in Nigeria. I am sure Goodluck Jonathan or any other person in position of power who tries same or similar trick is equally bound to fail.
My advice to the president and his team is that as much as possible, they must avoid making statements that will further compound the national apprehension and expose in greater details the weaknesses of those in position of power.
Mr. President, the PDP’s zoning of the Presidency is the most crucial thing that gave the party its mandate in 1999. It also helped it in 2007. It may lose the nation in 2011 if it behaves otherwise. It is a serious situation. The president was clever by half. He either does not understand the nature and character of the PDP arrangement or was just being political about it.