Leadership
of the All Progressives Congress, APC, may have realized that some
blessings, despite their salacious nature come with daunting challenges
as they move to take one of the first major decisions since its victory
against the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in the just concluded
national elections.
The decision to allocate positions to
different geopolitical zones may be one of the party’s first litmus
test. Most analysts have avowed that care must be taken as political
stakeholders are waiting on the crossroad for the party’s first unbiased
decision. Many are of the views that an equitable and unbiased zoning
will further boost Nigerians’ confidence on the APC led government.
Geopolitical struggle
Reports
available to DAILY POST have suggested infighting among party stalwarts
from different geopolitical zones who are interested in having some
juicy positions allocated to their zones.
North Central
As
the zoning issue takes the central stage, political bigwigs from the
North Central have already commenced rigorous campaign and lobbying for
the Senate Presidency seat, arguing that politicians and people of the
zone carried out what appeared like a very difficult task by unseating
the PDP leadership in the state, and giving the APC a block vote in the
presidential election.
The North Central has two formidable
contenders in the persons of Senate minority leader, Senator George
Akume and Senator representing Kwara Central Senatorial zone, Sen.
Abubakar Bukola Saraki. The two Senators believe that they have the
clouts to lead the 8th Senate based on their experiences.
It
would be recalled that Senator George Akume, in 2011 battled with the
current Senate President, David Mark over the same position when it was
zoned to the North Central. David Mark however pulled through,
considering his experience and popularity among his colleagues and his
people.
It then means that Senator George Akume may appear like a
wounded lion this time again that many are suggesting that the Senate
presidency position be zoned to the North Central.
However, Saraki
may have a comparative advantage over Akume, not only by his experience
but by the fact that David Mark hailed from Benue State, the same state
with Sen. George Akume. Political watchers have argued that since both
individuals were formerly of the PDP and David Mark became Senate
President while they were in the same party, it’s only reasonable that
George Akume allows a politician from another state to benefit from the
highly revered position. The question however is whether Akume is ready
to give up the position as sources have disclosed to DAILY POST that the
Senator has already initiated an early move to sway support for
himself.
While backing the zoning of Senate Presidency to the
North Central, a group in a communiqué signed by the zonal chairman of
the party, Mr. Zakari Ede, and the six states chairmen in the region,
said the senate president be zoned to their area, noting that in due
course, the “Senate President will be chosen from one of our
Distinguished Senators.”
The group argued that the North Central,
being a susceptible zone, its success and victory should not be
undermined, stating that it would only be fair for the Senate President
position be zoned to the North Central.
The group argued thus: “We
further observed the followings facts among others, that the block vote
of the North Central, which is over 2.4m, is same as South West. The
North Central delivered 13 Senators same as North East.
“The North
Central also delivered 100 per cent state Governors as North West
compared to the North East with only four Governors.
“It is our
strong belief that these efforts and performances need to be rewarded
since our role was pivotal to our party’s success at the national level.
“It
was expected that the North West and North East would largely vote APC,
however, it was crucial that the North Central should also deliver its
votes for our party to succeed. It was on this, we believe, that
contributed in no small measure to our party’s victory.
“It must
be noted that since 1999, the North Central Zone even under the PDP has
been taking third position and with our recent performance, we equally
believe the Zone should have the same third position.’’
While the
battle for the Senate Presidency and other positions continues within
the APC fold, media reports had it during the weekend that following
last Wednesday caucus meeting of the APC, there are strong indications
that the All Progressives Congress (APC) has developed a new zoning
arrangement for the party.
The new zoning structure, a copy of
which was obtained by DAILY POST is believed to have taken into
consideration the performance, integrity, legislative experience and
ranking for the various positions in the National Assembly.
Proposed zoning formula
Surprisingly,
the new zoning formula did not go the thinking of many as it cedes the
Senate Presidency to the North-east while the Speakership position goes
to the South-west. Relatively, while the Senate majority leader went to
the North-west, the North Central is left with the deputy Senate
president’s position.
While this news may have ignited some
questions and anger in the North Central, particularly in Benue State
where many had reportedly started celebration ahead of the probable
emergence of Sen. George Akume as the Senate President, other
stakeholders who were reportedly privy to the new zoning formula from
the North west and North east had expressed delight with the new
arrangement. Some members of the party’s National Working Committee
(NWC) who know of the new arrangement but not mandated to speak said:
“the new zoning formula is with our leaders. We only await directives to
make it public.”
Argument for the North East
Some
analysts have in the interim backed the current zoning arrangement,
justifying that the North east deserves the Senate President’s position
more than all other zones in the country.
They are of the opinion
that based on the massive votes gathered for the APC from the zone
despite its overwhelming security challenges; the zone can only be
compensated with the Senate Presidency’s position which is the number
three position in the country. They have argued that since the
Presidency position has now been zoned to the North West, and the Vice
President to South west, it is only reasonable and most appropriate that
the position is zoned to the North east that garnered the
second-highest number of votes for the APC in the just concluded
presidential election.
Political ‘heavy weights’ from the zone
have equally argued that since the north east never really participated
in governance, particularly in the 7th Senate due to the rising
insurgency in the zone, it will be fair to compensate it with this
highly contentious position.
The zone has argued that in 2011,
zoning arrangement was not strictly followed as almost all the slots
were given to other zones at the detriment of the north east. Some have
argued that the region was left with no principal office in both the
Senate and House of Representatives. The North east has therefore vowed
that a repeat of the 2011 arrangement cannot be allowed under the APC
incoming leadership. This has further put to doubt the expectation of
the north central that it will produce the next Senate President.
Also
arguing in support of reserving the Senate presidency to the north
east, senator representing Yobe East Senatorial District in the Upper
Chamber, Ibrahim Abba Bukar said it would be a great injustice if the
leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) zones the Senate
President position to the North-Central and the Speakership position of
the House of Representatives to South-West in the next legislative arm.
Bukar had argued that North Central that had produced the said position
four times should this time around leave it for the north east that has
never produced even a single senate leadership since the democratic
dispensation began.
Relatively,
Senator Ali Ndume has showed his support for the application of zoning
formula while choosing political office holders. He had argued that the
best thing is to zone the Senate position to the north east.
While
speaking to journalists at the APC national secretariat in Abuja, Ndume
gave his reason to be the level of backwardness the zone is currently
experiencing due to the Boko Haram insurgents. He argued that the people
of the north east gave the party the second highest number of votes
during the last general election, hence deserves a better position in
the allocation of political offices.
“The North east deserves to
be put in the power kitchen because of the precarious state of
development in the area. You see, the north east has produced the second
largest vote for APC during the last election and like I said, if you
are looking for people that will be consistent for being in opposition
all this while, Borno and Yobe in particular have been consistent in
opposition, ‘’ Ndume said.
Kwankwaso cautions APC
Meanwhile,
as tension continues to rise over the ongoing zoning controversies,
Kano State Governor and Senator-elect for Kano Central District, Rabiu
Musa Kwakwanso has cautioned the leadership of APC to watch out against
undue delay in the issue of power sharing so that the mistake of his
former party (PDP) is not repeated.
He said the same mistake led to bickering and bitterness in the PDP led administration.
Tinubu pinch tent, overrules South West’s position
In
their own thinking, politicians from the South West have requested that
the Senate President or the Speaker of the House of Representatives
should be allocated to the zone, as the North cannot be allowed to take
all juicy positions. A caucus from the South West told DAILY POST that,
‘’ it doesn’t matter the geopolitical zones. North is north and South is
South. We can’t allow the north to go with all the positions. We can’t
be denied all other positions because we have just the Vice President’s
position. The North already has the President’s position, which is the
number one position. If the Senate President’s position goes to the
North Central or any other part of the north, it will then become an
obvious dominance. We may likely reject such zoning arrangement.’’
But
on the contrary, recent reports have revealed that former governor of
Lagos and his wife, Remi Tinubu on Monday night showed their support for
Senator Ahmed Lawan from Yobe State. According to the report, Tinubu
had offered Akume the choice of becoming the deputy Senate president,
which he has turned down, insisting the Senate President position must
not go another person’s way.
With this development, the hope of
the North Central and other South West agitators may have been dashed.
It remains unclear whether Tinubu will change his position as daunting
opposition against his decision has become very visible from both the
North Central and his own region, South West.
It was also learnt
that in the meeting of the North-central caucus of the APC that also
took place on Monday night, when they got wind of the Senate presidency
being zoned to the North-east, the news did not go down well with the
leaders of the zone.
According to APC sources, the North-central
caucus frowned at the continued manipulation of the system by Tinubu
without considering the input of the zone to the recent electoral
success of the party.
A party source said senators and other
elected officials of APC from the North-central zone were worried,
considering the fact that the Middle Belt completely turned the zone
from a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)-dominated region to one controlled
by APC.
Legacy political parties
However,
as the argument continues, some have disagreed with geopolitical zoning
in the All Progressives Congress, saying that zoning should rather be
based on the interests of political parties that came together to form
the All Progressives Congress, APC.
A school of thought has
however argued on the contrary that the zoning formula must not be based
on geopolitical interest but on legacy parties’ interest.
They
have argued that the All Progressives Congress, APC, was an offshoot of a
coalition between the All Nigerian Peoples Party, ANPP, Congress for
Progressives Change, CPC, and Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN. The
argument is that the legacy parties’ interest must be protected in the
new zoning arrangement. The advocates of this Zoning formula believe
that the interest of these political parties cannot be totally eroded
despite the fact that APC sees itself today as one indivisible body. An
APC caucus member who spoke exclusively to DAILY POST, but pleaded not
to be mentioned disclosed that the zoning formula cannot be done outside
the interest of the different political parties that took pain to form
the soon-to-be ruling party, APC.
“It’s not exactly true that our
party is exclusively holding onto a geopolitical zoning arrangement. We
are also considering that the interests of the legacy parties are
protected. If you watch very well, you will understand that the position
of the president has already been taken by the CPC that presented Gen.
Muhammadu Buhari, while the ACN has also taken the position of the Vice
President in the person of Yemi Osibanjo. The Senate President’s
position will surely go to the ANPP,” he had revealed.
If the APC agrees on this legacy parties’ arrangement, then the agitation from the North Central may have a fruitless outcome.
However,
other APC members have argued that legacy parties’ arrangement does not
fit into the present structure and system being operated in the party.
The argument is that immediately after the coalition, CPC, ANPP and ACN
seized to exist. They said the mutual agreement signed by the party
never allows the defunct parties to play separate party politics within
the larger APC.
An APC stakeholder from the North Central told
DAILY POST thus; “It’s going to be very unfair for anyone to bring into
this current arrangement the issue of legacy parties.
“We all sat
and agreed that we were not going to rely on any consensus arrangement
in our party. In that sense, we opted for a primary that was done
transparently before all Nigerians; then Gen. Buhari emerged victorious.
“So it’s clear that there was no legacy party arrangement as far as his emergence is concerned.
“The
choice of Prof. Yemi Osibanjo as the Vice Presidential candidate was
based on political calculation regarding his acceptability and for the
fact that the President- Elect is a Muslim. Aside this, geopolitical
arrangement was also an issue. I can’t see any legacy party arrangement
in all this. We can’t go back to divide our party along legacy parties’
lines as our unity is extremely important to us”
APC elders to decide
Meanwhile,
the ongoing struggle for the zoning of political offices in the APC has
continued to generate more controversies as different lists are
continually being circulated in the social media.
In a reaction to
this development, the leadership of the All Progressives Congress has
asked Nigerians to disregard any list that is not officially announced
by the party as decisions on zoning can only be taken by party elders.
In a statement issued on behalf of the party by the Director General of
the Buhari Campaign Organization, Gov. Chibuike Amaechi, he said; “there
is only one meeting the party has held as it concerns zoning of offices
and we have said the elders should go and zone the offices. The elders
are yet to return to the party so those things you people are doing are
speculations.
“We don’t have a choice. If you want to serve in a
government, then you have to abide by the rules. And the person that
wants to run the government has said that anyone who wants to serve must
publicly declare his asset,” Amaechi said.
The
question therefore is whether the APC will pass this first litmus test
without a crack or will give in to sentiment to the detriment of its
overall national interest? Will the party resort to legacy parties’
arrangement or hold on to the popular culture of geopolitical zoning?
The answers will come in a few weeks from now. Nigerians are watching,
the soon-to-be opposition, PDP, is watching.
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