President Goodluck Jonathan (M) flanked by his vice, Namadi Sambo (L)
during PDP presidential rally in Owerri, Imo state. Photo: NAN
The southeast geo-political zone may have finally lost its bid to produce the next speaker of the House of Representatives. This is because the National Caucus of the Peoples Democratic Party, which met on Tuesday night at the Presidential Villa, has adopted the current zoning arrangement.
Sources at the meeting, which was attended by President Goodluck Jonathan, and his deputy, Namadi Sambo, said the caucus also resolved to pick a new national chairman for the party in March 2012. The meeting was also attended by members of the National Working Committee and Board of Trustees of the party.
Minor adjustments
Sources told journalists in Abuja that the enlarged caucus retained the current zoning formula with minor adjustments. These include the zoning of the position of the national chairman to the northeast zone and the secretary to the government of the federation to the southeast, in addition to the position of the deputy senate president.
With the decision, the north central zone will produce the senate president while the speaker of the House of Representatives will come from the southwest zone. Mr Jonathan and his deputy are from the south-south and northwest zones, respectively. Representatives of the southeast in the caucus were said to have made a strong case to produce the speaker of the lower legislative chamber.
Their demand, they said, was anchored not only on the huge support the zone gave the PDP during the elections but because they believe that the country stands on a tripod. They also said that they were not comfortable with the position of secretary to the government of the federation as it does not command much power like the other key offices like the senate president and the speaker. The National Executive Committee of the party is expected to meet soon to ratify the agreement.
Expectant southeast
The Niger State governor, Babangida Aliyu, who is also the chairman of the Northern Governors Forum, was reported to have said the north central zone did not see anything wrong with the current zoning formula. The forum had met in Abuja on Tuesday where they backed the retention of the subsisting zoning formula.
The caucus was also said to have passed a vote of confidence on the acting national chairman of the party, Haliru Bello Mohammed and members of the National Working Committee. Consequently, the forum endorsed his stay in office till March 2012 when members of the National Working Committee would be completing their four-year tenures. They were elected in 2008. The caucus also mandated the committee to start consultation with all segments of the ruling party and stakeholders with a view of explaining the reasons behind the new zoning formula to them. The committee was also asked to ensure discipline in the party.
A returning senator, Uche Chukwumerije, has however warned that the decision not to zone either the senate presidency or the speakership of the House of Representatives to the southeast geo-political zone may be dangerous.
‘An insult'
Addressing leaders of the Abia North Senatorial District who visited him in his office in Abuja, Mr Chukwumerije said the zoning of any of the offices will be compensation to the people of the zone for massively supporting President Goodluck Jonathan and the PDP. He argued that it would be against natural justice for the zone to be sidelined, noting that time had come for it to take its rightful place in the country.
"We have now reached a critical turn. After giving the highest percentage support to the national party and the federal project in the last four elections, the southeast and Ndigbo have nothing else to do to prove their prime candidacy for a frontline position in Nigeria," he said.
"The least which we should get now is a high leverage appropriate to this performance record. The minimum due to us is either senate president or speaker of the House of Representatives. This insult of ‘monkey work, baboon chop' must stop - a game which invariably leaves us holding the wrong end of the stick."
Scramble for chairmanship post
Meanwhile, as a result of the minor adjustments to the current zoning arrangement in the PDP, some of the party's chieftains in the northeast geo-political zone have reportedly indicated interest in the chairmanship of the party.
Those interested in the position include a former minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Aliyu Modibo Umar, and the immediate past governor of Bauchi State, Adamu Mu'azu. Mr Umar, who is currently abroad, served as minister twice under former President Olusegun Obasanjo before he was appointed FCT minister by the late President Umaru Yar'Adua.
Before his appointment as a minister by Mr Obasanjo, Mr Umar, a political scientist and former journalist, also served as deputy chief of staff in the presidency.
Mr Mu'azu, on his part, was governor of Bauchi State until 2007 and he is said to have given an average performance.
It was also learnt that the national vice chairman (northeast), Paul Wampana and the outgoing Gombe State governor, Danjuma Goje, who is a senator-elect, may join the race. Mr Goje was reportedly interested in the senate presidency, but the zoning arrangement adopted by the national caucus has ended that dream.
The position had been zoned to the southeast in 2007, and it produced two chairmen in the last two years - Vincent Ogbulafor from Abia State and Okwesilieze Nwodo from Enugu State. Mr Nwodo resigned last January under controversial circumstances; the crisis in the Enugu State chapter of the party as well as litigations trailing his membership of the party. Since his exit, his deputy, Haliru Bello Mohammed, has been presiding over the ruling party in an acting capacity.
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