Haliru Muhammed, PDP Acting National Chairman
By Chuks Okocha in Abuja
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is moving fast to ensure that the election of Hon. Aminu Tambuwal and Hon. Emeka Ihedioha as Speaker and Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives respectively does not affect the zoning formula in the party.
The office of the national secretary of the party, originally zoned to the South-south, may now go to the South-west geo-political zone.
It is however confirmed that the office of the national chairman of the party remains zoned to the North-east despite the clamour by South-west chieftains of the party that they should be compensated with the office of the national chairman.
According to a top source in the National Working Committee (NWC), though PDP was still consulting with the various organs of the party to take a final decision on the violation of the zoning arrangement, the decision to re-zone the office of the national secretary of the party to the South-west is meant to assuage the zone that what happened on the floor of the House of Representatives was beyond the control of the PDP.
“By the agreement reached at the expanded national caucus of our great party, the office of the national secretary currently occupied by North-central was zoned to the South-south zone, but with the recent development, it is wise to re-zone it to the South-west.
“This is the position being contemplated for now. This is because the party is proactive and reacting to the mood of the nation. The speaker and his deputy have apologised and the Acting National Chairman, Dr. Mohammed Harilu Bello, on behalf of the party, has accepted their apology and the president while in the United States said that the South-west and the North-east would be compensated.
“It is in this line of thought that the party will move for the re-zoning of the office of the national secretary to the South-west. We are also aware of some agitations by the South-west that they would prefer the office of the national chairman of the party to be zoned to them. But I can tell you that it is not politically expedient for the PDP to have both the president of the country who is the leader of the party and the national chairman coming from the South. So, the move at this moment is proactive to prevent further damage. Consultations are still on. The chairman of the PDP Board of Trustees is still in the South-west and held by the former President, Olusegun Obasanjo,” the source explained.
Meanwhile, a former national chairmanship aspirant of PDP, Chief Sunny Iroche from Abia State, has said the recent scenario that played out in the House of Representatives on the election of the speaker and deputy speaker, in defiance of the party’s zoning formula, implies that zoning is dead in the party.
In a statement, Iroche said: “The emergence of Hon. Tambuwal has put the final nail in the coffin of zoning. I am an advocate of equity, good governance and for the emergence of the available best candidate for any political or economic office in the land, as long as the person is a Nigerian in good standing.”
According to Iroche, “It is not equitable to have the office of the speaker zoned to a political region with only five members in the House. This is against a zone like the South-east which overwhelmingly voted for the Peoples Democratic Party. It is gratifying that the South-east produced the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, but is this enough political compensation for the region that voted massively for the PDP? If you look at the composition of government today, you will see an inequitable distribution of office, vice-president, Senate president and speaker all from the old Northern bloc.”
He therefore advocated that the office of the national chairman of the party be thrown open.
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