DETAILS of why some main power brokers in the All Progressives Congress (APC) are pushing that zoning is jettisoned ahead of the 2023 presidential contest have emerged.
Multiple contacts in the ruling party told Nigerian Tribune that some key stakeholders feel that certain unfolding developments lately have altered the original political projections and calculations.
The APC has scheduled its presidential primary for May 30 and 31, about 24 hours after the candidate of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) would have emerged. It is also recalled that the national chairman of APC, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, had stirred a major controversy when he said the APC was yet to settle the issue of zoning, contrary to popular belief in the party and across the country, coupled with the demand by many party leaders that the ticket should go to the South, in the interest of equity, justice and fairness.
Adamu had told newsmen when he led the party’s candidate in the July 18 governorship election in Ekiti State, Mr Biodun Oyebanji, to President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, that, “I am today privileged to be the chairman of the party. The party is greater than me. The party has not made a decision and I cannot preempt what the party’s decision will be.”
Shortly after this, Governor Muhammad Badaru Abubakar of Jigawa State obtained expression of interest and nomination forms while there are speculations that the President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan from Yobe State, may join the race next week.
Before then, Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State was the only one from the North that has consistently proclaimed his bid for the ticket, though he and the APC national chairman, Senator Adamu, hail from the same zone, the North-Central.
But in a swift response, the governor of Ondo State, Mr Rotimi Akeredolu, said it would be disingenuous for anyone to argue against rotation at this period.
“We must not keep our party men and women guessing on the position of the leadership of the party. This is the time to weigh in and take control of the process. No statement must suggest, even remotely, that the party harbours certain sentiments which may predispose it to consider throwing the contest open. This is certainly not the time for equivocation. Equity dictates we take a stand,” the governor stressed.
The ambivalence of Adamu on power shift also drew flak from elder statesmen like Chief Ayo Adebanjo and Chief Edwin Clark, who said the plot to deny the South of the presidency in 2023 could lead to dire consequences for the unity and stability of country.
At the threshold of the APC convention in March, Governor Nasir el-Rufai of Kaduna State had said though the APC had not decided on zoning the presidential ticket, the swapping of national offices was an indication of where its presidential candidate would come from.
Before now, some governors in the North elected on the APC ticket had joined their counterparts from the South along with those elected on PDP ticket in the advocacy for southern president in 2023.
However, the current thinking among some APC power brokers is that the party could not afford to gamble with the choice of a southern candidate for the February 28 election since former vice president, Alhaji Atiku, might emerge again as the standard-bearer of the PDP at the primary. This is notwithstanding feelers that the battle for PDP ticket could be a straight fight between Atiku and a former president of the Senate, Dr Bukola Saraki.
The power brokers corroborated the argument based on the assumption that the North remains a major stronghold of President Muhammadu Buhari, who though might not be on the ballot, his influence and support could sway a large chunk of northern voters in 2023.
According to members of the APC northern caucus buffs, most loyalists of the president would prefer to work for a candidate of northern extraction of the party along with other APC chieftains and groups across the board.
The party leaders reasoned that the preponderance of such Buhari loyalists are not likely to be favourably disposed to APC candidate of the southern extraction if PDP has a northerner on the ballot.
Thus, the APC chieftains said they were working to avert what they described as the political blunder committed by the PDP in 2015 when it settled for a southern candidate, instead of fielding a northerner to face the then APC standard-bearer, Major-General Muhammadu Buhari (retd), who eventually won after four failed attempts in the past.
Another major argument of the power brokers, it was learnt, was the existing political configuration across the six geopolitical zones. They believed that the odd still favours the APC taking full advantage of having most of the sitting northern governors elected on its platform in the coming elections.
Apart from Adamawa, Sokoto, Benue, Bauchi and Taraba states, the remaining 15 states in the North are under the control of the APC.
High-density states in terms of voting pattern, including Kano, Borno and Katsina, they said, constitute a strong electoral pillar for the APC, which, in their opinion, can always make a difference in any major contest like the presidential election.
They added that the current push for a northern candidate from the North for the ruling party is imperative in order to consolidate in 2023, the inroad the APC made in the South-South and the South-East through the defection of Governor Ben Ayade of Cross River State and his Ebonyi State counterpart, Dave Umahi, from the PDP.
At the moment, the opposition party controls five of the six states in the SouthSouth and two of the five states in the South-East.
Part of the calculations of the APC buffs, as gathered by Nigerian Tribune, is that the electorate in the North could redirect their votes in favour of the opposition if the APC picks a southerner as candidate.
All permutations and arguments were said to be responsible for the back-and-forth movement in the APC on zoning, as well as hide and seek as the countdown to party primary progresses.
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