Zoning: PDP names post for North, South

THE Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has named the positions in its national leadership allocated to northern and southern zones of the country under its new zoning formula.
It is now to have two Deputy National Chairmen, with one each for the two regions
The Zoning Committee inaugurated last Friday by the chairman of the National Caretaker Committee of the party, Senator Ahmed Makarfi, submitted its report on Tuesday, recommending that apart from the 2019 presidential candidate, which has already been zoned to the North, the position of the Deputy National Chairman II should also go to zone.
Other posts zoned to the Northern zones are National Secretary, National Financial Secretary, National Publicity Secretary, National Auditor, National Woman Leader and Deputy National Treasurer.
Others are Deputy National Organising Secretary, Deputy National Youth Leader, Deputy National Legal Adviser and Deputy National Secretary.
Among the positions zoned to the Southern zones under the new arrangement are National Chairman, Deputy National Chairman 1, National Treasurer, National Legal Adviser, National Youth Leader, National Organising Secretary and Deputy National Publicity Secretary. Deputy National Woman Leader, Deputy National Auditor and Deputy National Financial Secretary.
The committee recommended that Zonal National Vice Chairmen, who were not members of the National Working Committee (NWC) should now become members.
Reading the decisions of the Zoning Committee, its co-chairman and governor of Ebonyi State, Dave Umahi, said at the temporary national secretariat of the party in Abuja, that as a guide, the committee considered earlier zoning arrangements in the party since its inception to date and equally examined previous happenings in the party in respect of restrictions to equal participation of members.
Consequently, he said “it desired a paradigm shift from the unsatisfactory practices within the party operations.”
According to him, after robust deliberations on proposals presented by members, the committee proposed that all positions should be keenly contested for among the major zones they were zoned to, in order to open the space and allow for full participation of members.
The committee encouraged the party to adopt a pattern of zoning by switching positions from north to south.
Present at the presentation of report ceremony also were co-chairman of the Zoning Committee and governor of Gombe State, Ibrahim Dankwabo, the secretary of the committee and former governor of Benue State, Gabriel Suswam and many members of the committee.
The report was signed by 66 of the 88 members in the committee.
While receiving the report on behalf of the chairman, Secretary of the National Caretaker Committee, Senator Ben Obi, observed that the prompt delivery of the assignment by members of the Zoning Committee, who he said were not paid, was a demonstration of the new spirit in PDP.
“When you say you want to rebrand, your actions must speak louder than your words,” he said, stressing that the committee members took care of their own logistics during course of their work in Abuja.