PDP’s zoning conundrum and Atiku’s dilemma

By Emmanuel Badejo

Electioneering campaigns have just commenced for next year’s presidential election, which is expected to produce President Muhammadu Buhari’s successor. All the 18 political parties have settled on their candidates and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has affirmed such candidatures by publishing a list of the authentic flag bearers of the various parties.

It is generally believed that the battle for the plum job is among three contestants: Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC); Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP); and Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP). Among the trio, Atiku’s candidacy has thrown up so much controversy; no day passes without any development on the matter. The controversy centres around the accusation that he truncated the subsisting power rotation arrangement or zoning between the north and the south within the party. Although the 1999 Constitution does not make a clear provision on zoning between the two parts of the country, the spirit of the constitution, however, upholds the principle of Federal Character, which seeks to balance appointments to reflect the country’s diversity.

Section 14 (1) of the 1999 constitution as amended states: “The Federal Republic of Nigeria shall be a state based on the principles of democracy and social justice. Section 14 (3) states: The composition of the Government of the Federation or any of its agencies and the conduct of its affairs shall be carried out in such a manner as to reflect the Federal Character of Nigeria and the need to promote national unity and also to command national loyalty thereby ensuring that there shall be no predominance of persons from a few states or from a few ethnic or other sectional groups in that government or any of its agencies.”

The issue of Federal Character is not limited to governance. It is for this reason that Section 223 (1) (b) of the Constitution says, “The constitution and rules of a political party shall ensure that the members of the executive committee or other governing body of the political party reflect the Federal Character of Nigeria while sub-section 2(b) says … The Federal Character is reflected only if the members belong to different states.”

Besides, the main opposition party specifically provided for zoning and rotation in its convention and constitution.  The PDP introduced the concept of zoning into Nigerian politics to promote national peace and unity. Section 7(2)(c) of the party’s constitution states: “… In pursuance of the principle of equity, justice and fairness, the party shall adhere to the policy of rotation and zoning of the party and public elective offices.”

Thus, the convention since the return to civil rule in 1999 is that presidential power rotates between northern and southern Nigeria. Uche Secondus, who hails from Rivers State, in the South-south geopolitical zone, and immediate chairman of the party, was reportedly sacrificed to balance the zoning and power rotation arrangement.  His southern allies forced him to quit the office in the hope that presidential power was coming to the south. He was immediately replaced with Senator Iyorchia Ayu, who hails from Benue State, in the North Central geo-political zone. This was why Ayu publicly declared that he would resign should a northerner emerge as the party’s candidate.

Indeed, the PDP had adopted zoning as a major policy for all elective positions. It remains an important tool used in determining which area produces the party’s candidate in an election. Yet, to create room for the emergence of Atiku, the party was pressured to violate the quintessential rule. The party is now being compelled to face the consequences.

Surprisingly, as the date for the recent presidential primary got near, the leadership of the PDP began to change the tune of their song. The party began to toy with the idea of throwing the ticket open for the “strongest candidate that will be able to defeat the ruling APC”. The party leadership, therefore, worked backwards from the answer to the question to achieve its aim of ceding the ticket to Atiku.

To ensure that there was no impediment to his emergence as the party’s standard bearer, Sokoto State’s Governor Aminu Tambuwal had to step down at the last minute and ask his supporters to vote for Atiku, who subsequently defeated Rivers State’s Governor Nyesom Wike.

It is on record that Atiku had in the past fought moves to truncate the zoning arrangement within the party.  Between 2010 and 2015, he vociferously campaigned that it was the turn of the north to produce the president in line with the PDP’s policy of rotation and fairness. He made the statement that those who make peaceful transition impossible make violent change inevitable. Because of his anger that the PDP was not keeping to its policy on zoning, he left the PDP and worked against the PDP winning the 2015 election.

Ironically, in 2022, the same Atiku worked against the zoning principle of the PDP because he wanted to emerge as the candidate and contest the presidency for the sixth time between 1993 and 2023. In 2018, in line with the zoning principle, the PDP allowed only candidates from the north to contest for its presidential ticket for the last general elections in 2019. Atiku emerged at that convention.