The National Executive Committee (NEC) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Thursday adopted the report submitted by the Governor Ifeanyi Uguanyi-led committee that recommended the zoning of the office of the national chairman of the party to the north.
Meeting in its 94th regular session at the national secretariat of the party in Abuja, the committee also resolved to defer consideration of the Governor Bala Mohammed-led committee that had earlier recommended throwing open the 2023 presidential ticket of the party to all zones.
The National Publicity Secretary is the party, Kola Ologbondiyan, who briefed reporters on the outcome of the meeting, affirmed that the NEC resolved not to deliberate on other issues outside the Uguanyi committee report.
Recall that the Uguanyi committee had recommended that offices being held by southerners in the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party be swapped with those held by northerners.
However, the zoning committee, which also has Governor Sam Ortom of Benue state as its deputy chairman and the Deputy Governor of Zamfara state, Mahdi Aliyu Mohammed, as secretary, washed its hands off the zoning of the presidency, vice president, or legislative positions.
But it affirmed that offices zoning in the PDP has traditionally been between north and south.
A communique issued at the end of the committee’s meeting in Enugu on Thursday read: “At the end of the deliberations of the PDP National Zoning Committee, it was resolved as follows:
“The National Zoning Committee of the PDP was given the mandate to zone National offices to be contested by all PDP Members of the Party at the PDP National Convention of the Party scheduled for October 30/31 2021 by the National Executive Committee of the Party.
“That the mandate of the Committee does not include Zoning of the offices of the President, Vice President and other Executive and Legislative offices of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“And the decision of the Committee to zone the Party offices does not in any way affect the executive and legislative offices in Nigeria.
“That zoning of offices on PDP has traditionally been between the North and South of Nigeria.
“The decision of the PDP Zoning Committee is in line with the Constitution of the Party on Zoning and rotation of Party and national offices in the interest of justice, equity, and fairness.
“Consequently, the current offices being held by officers in the Southern Zones of the country, namely, South West, South East, and South-South zones, should swap places with the offices currently in the northern zones of Nigeria, namely, North West, North East, and North Central zones.
“We want to thank the Party, especially the National Executive Committee that set up this Committee on September 9, 2021, for finding us worthy to serve the Party in the capacity of Zoning Committee members.
“We shall pass on our recommendations to the National Executive Committee of the Party through the National Working Committee of the Party.”
The PDP NEC in its October 9 meeting, set up the zoning committee alongside the national convention planning committee led by Adamawa state Governor Ahmadu Fintiri.
The PDP national spokesman also maintained that the various zones in the country were now at liberty to micro-zone the positions allocated to them.
In his opening statement, the PDP acting National Chairman, Elder Yemi Akinwonmi, said the All Progressive Congress (APC) was keen to see the outcome of the NEC meeting but they would be disappointed.
He said: “Today is a day of making history in the life and survival of this great party PDP which Nigerians are eagerly waiting to take them out of the challenges of socio-political vices created by the political party in power, the APC.
“At this juncture, I call on us to understand our differences reflect them and when not necessary, forget them. We should look at our party and Nigeria and bury all our personal differences because PDP is above any personal, or individual or collective consideration.”
The Chairman of the PDP Governors Forum and governor of Sokoto State, Aminu Tambuwal, in his opening speech, appealed to NEC members to exhibit wisdom in addressing the issues at hand.
He admonished that they must be guided by the interest of Nigeria and that of the party.
Before the commencement of the meeting, the Chairman of the PDP Board of Trustees (BoT), Senator Walid Jibrin, addressed a press conference where he appealed to members of NEC to exercise decorum during the meeting.
There were chaotic scenes at the national secretariat PDP as members thronged the venue of the NEC.
The NEC hall was filled to capacity with seats barely available for members who wanted to be part of the crucial decisions that were to be made particularly on offices zoning.
Officials had a hard time controlling the crowd in the hall.
Thursday’s meeting was apparently the most attended since the party lost power at the center in 2015, with party members, many of whom had not been participating in its activities, saying they wanted to be present to contribute their views to the important decision-making process.
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