2023: Hide and seek in APC, PDP over zoning

A MISTY atmosphere surrounds the zoning formula likely to be adopted by both the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for elective offices preparatory to 2023, as governors elected under their platforms try to consolidate their grip on the parties. 

Though neither the ruling APC nor the main opposition PDP has formally proclaimed any zoning formula for the election, they seem to be in dilemma over the issue. 

This is largely due to division among ranks of their major stakeholders over power shift, even some big wigs are pushing for consensus arrangement to determine standard-bearer for the next general election. 

Three issues, according to findings, are central in the ongoing power struggle in the APC and the PDP, one of which is the control of the top party architecture. 

The second one, which is related to the first is the race for the ticket of the individual parties for the February 2023 presidential poll in the country. The third issue is the politics of the forthcoming conventions of the APC and the PDP, where delegates would stamp or affirm the authority of the most potent and dominant forces ahead of the elections. 

So far, governors elected on the ticket of the parties are gradually emerging as a formidable power bloc as they constitute the committees with the mandate to oversee the emergence of new party structures and organise the conventions. 

There are accusations and counter-accusations over the appropriateness or otherwise of the parties assigning governors such critical assignment, since they are believed to be interested parties in the race for the tickets for the elections. 

Checks showed that some party faithful are remonstrating against the proposition of a consensus option to decide the standard-bearer of the APC for fear of being manipulated to scheme out an influential presidential hopeful from the Southern axis of the country. 

According to them, this could be corroborated with the fact that so far, the preponderance of contestants for chairmanship in APC are mostly from the North. Governors from the 17 states in the South have also made a strong case that successor to President Buhari should come from the South based on the mutual agreement on power rotation between the North and the South. 

President Buhari has less than two years to end of his eight years of two terms in office. However, some elements in his APC prefer an open contest or power remaining in the North in the next political dispensation. 

According to them, since 1999, North has only had a stint in power for 10 years as against 14 by the South. The breakdown for the North include two years of the late President UmaruYar’Adua and the current eight years of the Buhari presidency. 

While a few governors of APC have consistently canvassed that the party look towards the South for its candidate, other forces are steering the middle course, as the APC leader, Buhari keeps everyone guessing on the issue. 

Senator Alex Kadiri has been a victim of barrage of verbal attacks for urging his people from North-Central to bury their aspiration to produce president in 2023. 

Another former member of the National Assembly from the zone, Senator Ajadi Makanjuola differed with Kadiri on the issue, saying the North-Central had a lot of competent and qualified people to be president of the country. 

He said the interest of people from the zone to aspire for APC chairmanship should not preclude the area from contesting for presidency. 

Among the touted names for chairmanship are Senators Abdullahi Adamu, Tanko Al-Makura, George Akume, Mohammed Sani Musa, Danjuma Goje, Mallam Mustapha Salihu, Ali ModuSheriff and Abdulaziz Yari. 

Apart from Senator Sani Musa and Alhaji Saliu Mustapha, the rest are former governors. The situation in main opposition 

PDP is no different as its incumbent governors are said to favour one of their former colleagues succeeding embattled incumbent Prince Uche Secondus. 

But, there were reports that the governors are yet to reach a consensus on the former governor that should be endorsed for the position. 

But the name of a former national secretary of PDP and ex-governor of Osun State, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola is being widely mentioned in many quarters. He is said to have backing of South-West PDP caucus. 

Last Thursday, PDP governors could not resolve the issue of zoning at a meeting held in Abuja. Instead, the leaders set up a committee with a mandate to address the issue. 

According to the party, the decision was premised on the need to tighten all lose ends. 

Meanwhile, speculations that PDP might concede its presidential ticket to the North has thrown up another round of issues. 

One of the issues is the view by some party buffs that such action could be the best for the party to avoid a repeat of the 2015 ‘wrong’ political calculation. 

The view is that the then opposition APC capitalised on the perceived fatal error of PDP to make hay. Another strand of their argument is that the perceived misgivings of most Nigerians about the performance of the APC administration since 2015 offer the PDP an ample chance to bounce back to power in 2023. 

Nonetheless, there are other PDP stalwarts, who believe that it could be catastrophic for the party to cede the presidency to the North. 

In their opinion, such a concession could cost the party a quantum of votes from the South, especially the South-East and the South-South, where it has always consolidated its grip since 1999. The electorate, including PDP loyalists, sympathisers and members from the South could choose to play a regional card in order to teach the opposition party a bitter lesson for not responding appropriately to current political temperament across the South and the North-Central. 

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