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• Zoning not the solution to Nigeria’s problems says Atiku
• Preaches fairness, justice at NEC meeting
• Secondus explains the reason for sustaining court case
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has adopted the zoning of its national chairmanship position to the North, upholding recommendations of the Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi-led zoning committee.
This was the high point of the highly anticipated 94th NEC meeting that was held in Abuja, yesterday. The NEC is the second-highest decision-making body of the party.
Briefing newsmen after the meeting, the National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Kola Ologbondiyan, said though there were discussions around the Bala Mohammed-led committee, which looked into reasons why the party lost the 2019 elections and the question of zoning of the 2023 presidential ticket, it was agreed that further discussions and decision on the subject should be left till another date.
Some party members have expressed reservations about the recommendation and its implications for the presidential ambition of some northerners.
At a pre-event briefing, the chairman of the PDP Board of Trustees (BoT), Senator Walid Jibrin, had appealed to party leaders to put national interest and the party’s survival ahead of personal interests.
As early as 9:00 a.m. yesterday, PDP governors met at the Rivers State governors’ lodge in Abuja where comprehensive explanations and clarifications were made on how the zoning of chairmanship would not affect the presidency. The consultations allayed fears of many from the North that the party was set to pick its presidential ticket from the Southern part of the country.
Hours before the actual commencement of the meeting, some people had converged on the party secretariat protesting against what they called discrimination against the North.
IN a strong campaign to boost his chance of running again under the banner of the major opposition party, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, yesterday, tasked the PDP to pay less attention to where a President emerges from.
According to him, “where the President comes from has never been the problem of Nigeria, neither will it be the solution.”
“There is no such thing as a President from Southern Nigeria or a president from Northern Nigeria. There is only one fact, a president from Nigeria, for Nigeria and by Nigerians.”
Atiku, who preached justice and fairness at the meeting, narrated how he took part in the drafting of the 1999 Constitution and later, along with others, resolved that the Presidency should go to the Southwest in 1999 to compensate the zone for the injustice it suffered.
Citing some historical events, Atiku said: “Those of us who served in the constitutional conference, which drafted the current Constitution of Nigeria should remember that after we finished the draft, we all met as members of the conference and resolved to correct the injustice that was done to a particular part of this country. And we said, in whichever party you found yourself, your presidential candidate must come from the Southwest, because Abiola had won the election, but it was annulled. Not only was his election annulled, but he was also killed.
“So, we all agreed as members, and we went out of the constitutional conference and formed our parties. At the end of the day, two parties emerged. The PDP picked Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo and the Alliance for Democracy (AD) picked Chief Olu Falae. All of these show you that Nigerians have a sense of fairness,’’ he stressed.
He said: “Distinguished members of NEC, in 2003, all the PDP governors met at the villa and said they were not going to support President Obasanjo for a second term, that I should run. I now referred them to the resolution of NEC, where NEC decided that power should remain in the Southwest for eight years. How do you now want me to go against the resolution of NEC? I turned it down and we moved on.
“So, this country has a sense of fairness. This country has a sense of justice. Therefore, this thing that is inbuilt in our party, we should be able to use it, to imbibe it to make sure today’s deliberations are in the best interest of our party and in the best interest of Nigeria, which will ultimately give us the victory that we asked for, to go back to the villa.”
DESPITE the efforts of the Senator David Mark-led reconciliation committee to have all court cases withdrawn to pave way for the forthcoming convention of the party, suspended national chairman, Prince Uche Secondus, has said the need to challenge the “lies” told against him by an unnamed governor informed his decision to approach the Court of Appeal to challenge his suspension.
The embattled national chairman said ever since the orchestrated plans by a governor to hijack the soul of PDP, he had been the target of unrestrained blackmail.
He added: “After the interim order based on such frivolous story, the said governor and his errand boys went ahead to get the court ruling against Prince Secondus.
“For being so treated and victimised without any justification whatsoever after almost four years of selfless service to the party, Prince Secondus is left with no option but to fight for his fundamental rights by approaching the court to seek redress and correct the blackmail and concoctions.”
“While awaiting the outcome of the case presented at the Court of Appeal, the blackmail has continued unabated with fabrications and all kinds of laughable lies to the fact that Prince Secondus is romancing with the opposition.”
He asserted that his records in the party remain untainted from state chairman through national organising secretary, deputy national chairman to national chairman since December 2017.
