The Director-General of Voice of Nigeria, Mr Osita Okechukwu, has advised the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, to uphold equity and fairness in its zoning of the 2023 Presidency.
Mr Okechukwu said this in an interview with journalists in Abuja in reaction to Governor Bala Mohammed of Bauchi’s statement that the governing All Progressives Congress, APC’s zoning formula will not affect the PDP.
Recall that Governor Bala Mohammed made this statement when he visited former President Olusegun Obasanjo to intimate the former leader of his presidential ambition.
APC has zoned the Presidency to the Southern part of Nigeria; meanwhile, the Bauchi State governor from the North desires to run for Presidency under the opposition PDP. Even though zoning is not in Nigeria’s Constitution, according to the agreement of zoning in Nigeria’s political system, the Presidency is to rotate between the North and the South, which means it is expected that the next President should come from the South.
Mr Okechukwu, a chieftain in APC, said that Governor Mohammed and, by extension, the PDP is trying to bring up ethnoreligious sentiment through its strategy to win elections.
“Methinks if the statement credited to him is correct, His Excellency, Bala Mohammed and by extension PDP, is simply being opportunistic by saying that APC’s zoning of Presidency to the South is not a threat to the PDP because if we put it to the North, it will give us more electoral victory. That’s ethnic chauvinism simple.
“The Bauchi State governor and PDP seem to forget that Nigerians are fair-minded and uphold justice and equity in their voting preferences. That was why the late Moshood Abiola of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) defeated Alhaji Bashir Tofa in his Kano State home in 1993.
“In 2023, Nigerians are going to repeat that feat by acknowledging President Muhammadu Buhari and APC’s decision to do the right things for national unity, peace and progress.
“To me, the doctrine of a swap of offices between the north and the south is a masterstroke by Mr President and good for APC and Nigerians in every material particular. It is a threat to our sister political party, the PDP, and signals their imminent defeat. My friend governor’s reaction seems inspired by a sense of defeatism and phobia for APC,” Okechukwu said.
Speaking on the perception that PDP’s strategy could be geared towards getting more votes from the north, Mr Okechukwu insisted that the Bauchi governor may be speaking on behalf of those who underrate the political sophistication of the north and their abiding faith in equity, natural justice and good conscience.
The VON DG added that the governor may have forgotten that such a measure would create a latent vote bank in the South through a southern presidential candidate.
“The nose of Governor Mohammed and his co-travellers can not lead the north. Have we forgotten how notable northern politicians like Alhajis Abubakar Rimi, Umaru Shinkafi, Adamu Ciroma, Dr Sola Saraki et al. out of overriding public interest and uncommon patriotism, constructed the zoning convention, which birthed the 4th Republic as the longest democratic era in the annals of Nigerian history?,” Okechukwu said.
E/Suzan O.
