Fireworks For 2023 Presidency: Which Zone Gets it?

Intrigues, suspense and power-play takes the front burner amongst the two leading political parties on which zone gets the nod of the party for the 2023 presidency


Although the 2023 presidential election is still about two years away, political gladiators have filled the political space with agitations, realignment and intrigues over where the presidency should be zoned. Particularly, as fireworks rage among the southern and northern Nigeria on which zone should get the 2023 presidency, the two dominant parties, the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) and the opposition Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP), seem to have engaged in what may be termed a ‘waiting game’.

While party chieftains across party lines have been airing their views, some of which are considered as flying the kite and testing the waters, the party leadership, curiously, have not taken any position. While the South east zone of the country lays claim to the right to produce the next president, the PDP who enjoys large followership from the zone has not made a categorical pronouncement on the matter saying the time is not ripe. This is in spite of the fact that some influential members like the national chairman of the party, Uche Secondus, the governor of Rivers state, Nyesom Wike and other party chieftains keep saying that the party is disposed to the candidate that will bring victory to it in 2023. In other words, the party is open to candidates from other zones that may have the magic wand that the party needs.

In the APC also, there exists babel of voices. While some say that the party should zone its presidency to the south, some say the southeast has not contributed enough for the APC and therefore, cannot reap where it did not sow. During the National Executive Committee meeting of the party last week Tuesday where the President in agreement with the party leadership extended the tenure of the Gov. Mai Mala Buni led caretaker committee by six months, the party stated that they will not discuss the issue of zoning till June 2021. Event watchers accuse some of the governors like El-Rufai who is disposed to the southern zone to produce the APC candidate of being selfish as according to them, he wants to run for the presidency as vice. Some of the backers for southern ticket are also saying that the South west will take it in the APC because it has worked hard for it.

Those who are sympathetic to the cause of the east argue that although zoning is not enshrined in the constitution, it has become a convention nonetheless. They posit that even though the Peoples’ Democratic Party have it in their constitution, the All Progressive Congress (APC), should also imbue it as it acts as a check and stabilizing factor. In the PDP, it continues to shy away from discussing the issue probably waiting for the APC to first take a decision on that. That said, the utterances of some PDP bigwigs have continued to rattle and ruffle the feathers of southeast PDP members and leaders. The PDP has officially said that time is not ripe for the discussion. Other heavy weights in the party have variously maintained that it is more interested in the candidate that will bring victory to it. According to the National Chairman of PDP, Uche Secondus, the 2023 presidential ticket of the party will be open to all party members. “Everyone who is qualified, young, old, governors and non-governors, is qualified and will have the opportunity to contest, and we have the space for everyone,” Secondus said in Bauchi.

Secondus’ position appears to contradict the calculations in some quarters that the party would automatically zone the ticket to the South, as President Muhammadu Buhari would have completed two terms of eight years for the north. Secondus, who said the PDP remained committed to zoning, said there would be no discrimination in picking the party’s presidential flag bearer in 2023. He said: “Zoning is entrenched in our constitution, and at the right time, you (reporters) will hear from us. However, the party is very democratic. There is no room for discrimination.” Secondus was accompanied to Bauchi by Governor Aminu Waziri Tambuwal of Sokoto State, former Senate President David Mark, former governor of Gombe State, Hassan Ibrahim Dankwambo and the Deputy National Chairman of the party, North, Senator Nazif Suleiman Gamawa.

Secondus’ statement is close to a recent statement by Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State who said the PDP would be guided in picking its presidential candidate by what it thinks would make it win. “As an opposition party, we look at all variables,” Wike said. He added: “What will make us win the election should come first. That is what is important to us. The ruling party can say that (zoning), but for the opposition party, there are variables.” The Ohanaeze Ndigbo Youth Council Worldwide (OYC) said last month that it had information that the PDP planned to pick its presidential candidate for the 2023 election from the north. It cautioned the opposition party against such action, saying Igbo President in 2023 is not negotiable.

The President-General of the group, Mazi Okechukwu Isiguzoro, and the Secretary-General, Mazi Okwu Nnabuike, advised Igbo politicians against accepting the vice-president slot. The group said it was alarmed that despite voting massively for the PDP since 1999, the party might be treating the Igbo as “cows that must not only be milked but used to death.” In a statement, the group said: “The OYC is irrevocably committed to the advancement of the Igbo nation. In the struggle to protect, promote and prosper the life and livelihood of the average Igbo man, the Council will speak with courage and act with wisdom.

“The OYC is committed to the idea that the Igbo man would thrive best in a restructured Federal Republic of Nigeria. What the Igbo man seeks is not a helping hand. The Igbo man demands a level playing field. Despite the agitation by the South-east for it to allot the presidential ticket of the party to the zone in 2023, the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) insist it would not be stampeded into doing so. According to the party, it is premature to allot the party’s ticket to any of the six geopolitical zones as the party needs to engage in consultations with all its critical stakeholders to arrive at such a decision. Spokesman of the party, Mr Kola Ologbondiyan, spoke on The Morning Show programme of ARISE NEWS Channel, against the backdrop of the moves by Ebonyi State Governor, Mr. Dave Umahi, to dump PDP for the All Progressives Congress (APC), unless the opposition party zones the ticket to the South-east, said all the organs of the party will be involved when it gets to the stage of discussions on which zone gets the party’s presidential ticket.

Ahead of his planned defection, the Ebonyi state chapter of the party and the state House of Assembly had given PDP a deadline to zone its ticket to the South-east or risk defection. Newsmen had exclusively reported of a lobby by prominent Nigerians for parties, especially the two dominant ones, PDP and APC, to concede the presidency to the South, irrespective of which geopolitical area of the zone gets the ticket. Ologbondiyan added that the PDP is not rattled by the threats from the South-east that PDP bigwigs from the zone will defect to APC, saying that the PDP does not operate like the ruling party, which he said is owned by one man from the North and the other from the South. He said: “PDP is a structured party. We have our various organs and it’s not a party belonging to one man from the North and one from the South. Our decision processes have a course and whatever decisions that must be taken, all the organs must be involved. We don’t act on impulse.

“We have not reached the stage of zoning of offices. Some of the things we are reading are mere speculations. “The party believes that the issues raised by Governor Umahi are of genuine concerns and when the time comes and all the variables are considered, the party will take its decision. PDP is not a party that can be stampeded. A decision on the number one office in the country is not one that can be taken at a sitting. We have started discussions. As we speak, we have not reached that level. Pundits say, it is this type of posturing that gave the Ebonyi state governor, David Umahi the excuse to defect to the APC. While justifying his recent defection to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), the Ebonyi State governor, David Umahi said he moved to the APC because of “injustice” meted out to the South-east by the PDP. He said that he had no deal with the APC or any member of the party with regards to the zoning of the presidential position to the region. “I want to clear the air that I never sought (for) PDP presidential ticket and I will not. So whoever said that I moved to APC because they refused to zone the ticket to me is being very mischievous.

“There are a lot of qualified persons from South-east. Some people say I was promised lots of things by the APC, there was no such discussion. APC never promised me any position, they never promised South-east any position. “It is absurd that since 1999 going to 2023, the South-east have never been considered to run for presidency under the PDP. And this is my position and will continue to be my position. It had nothing to do with me or my ambition,” Umahi said. He said he has decided to become the “sacrificial lamb” that would be crucified for the interest and good of the South-east as a zone. “I has since 2019 started the agitation for South-east Presidency, insisting that the zone must get it right now or else wait for another couple of years to get such opportunity again”.

He still expressed hope that the PDP will consider the region and zone the Presidency to South-east for equity and fairness. Umahi, who said he might quit politics in 2023, stated that he has not yet declared interest for the presidency and would support any candidate from the zone for the position. On the reason given by the PDP that it was not yet time for the issue of zoning, the governor said the PDP leadership was being economical with the truth. “In 2015, PDP had zoned the next presidential slot to the north against 2019. Then, the statement in Bauchi that the presidential slot is open to all parts of the country and the overtures and scheming to remove most members of the National Working Committee. These are some of the indications that the party has no intention of zoning it to the South-east. “The point is very simple. In 2023, I would have been in PDP between 23 and 24 years and south east never really supported APC the way they are supporting PDP.

“So, I believe strongly that the will of God will come to play but I believe that APC is amenable to working with South-east. From all indication, it’s amenable and I also believe that until justice and equity is implanted in this nation Nigeria, it is difficult for Nigeria to make progress,” Gov. Umahi said. Lending his voice on the issue, former Governor of Anambra State, Chief Chukwuemeka Ezeife has commended people from other regions who are supporting the emergence of an Igbo person as President in 2023.

Ezeife said that Igbo Presidency in 2023 is a divine project and already approved by God. The former governor stated this at the public presentation and formal launch of two books, Good Governance-Instrument for Transmission of a Nation and On the Sands of Time, written by Dr. Joel Oruche, in Abuja recently. According to Ezeife “We thank the Northerners, Westerners, South-South and the middle-Belt. They have signed on for Igbo Presidency. They have understood our quest for justice. He said that Igbo Presidency will lift Nigeria and cause explosive development of the country. “Igbo’s have Republican system, we encourage everyone to make effort and improve their welfare. “I am in contact with people from other regions, people you think are against you, they are in support of Igbo Presidency. Asked to comment on the defection of Ebonyi State Governor Dave Umahi to the APC, he said that he doesn’t like politicians who jump from party to party.

In a similar development, a political pressure group, United North Central Progressive Forum has thrown its weight behind the call for the Presidency to be zoned to the South East geo-political zone of the country in 2023. Addressing journalists in Abuja, national coordinator of the group, Comrade Ocholi Philip Onoja said, in the spirit of justice and fairness the region deserve to be given the chance. Onoja said the need for Igbo presidency was in consonance with Federal Character Principle as entrenched in 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended. The group also appealed to former governor of Imo state, Senator Rochas Anayo Okorocha to make himself available to contest the Presidency come 2023.

The coordinator said, putting into perspective the transformative programs of Okorocha during his days as the Governor and as a Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, he is ably qualified to provide quality leadership for the country if given the opportunity. Onoja stressed that Okorocha will also help to salvage Nigeria from its present security challenges, and provide an enabling environment that will attract investors into the country. “Today, Imo state, since creation, is witnessing for the first time, massive Infrastructural development that has not been witnessed before and we know that Nigeria will be massively transformed if he emerges as the President come 2023. “With the political calculations, Okorocha stands shoulder high among other equally qualified Igbo aspirants with important reference to the concern for merit and competence as the key issues in the race”. “It is on record that Senator Rochas Okorocha is the first Igbo man as a sitting governor that brought APC to the South-East. A significant land mark achievement of his administration as the governor of Imo state was the payment of N20,000 minimum wage when other states of the federation were battling to pay N18,000”.

He stressed that Owelle Rochas Okorocha by all standard is a distinguished personality who has a national spread. “Owelle lived most part of his life in the north and mixed so well with the major ethnic groups in the country till date. Owelle Rochas Okorocha has the charisma and intellectual depth to make a good president”. Taking the debate to another level, the deputy governor of Kogi state, Edward Onoja, in a television program said that Nigerians should consider North Central, specifically, Kogi state for the 2023 presidency. According to him, well-meaning Nigerians including President Buhari have reaffirmed that Kogi is a mini Nigeria. He explained that anybody that is capable of governing a complex state like Kogi successfully will also be in a position to govern the entire country. He therefore call on Nigerians and the party to look into the direction of Governor Bello in taking a decision for 2023 presidency. “Governor Bello has done so much in stabilizing the state among the diverse ethnics that make up the state and his achievements speaks for itself. He also stands as a bridge between the young and the old generation”, Onoja further stated.

As arguments over rotation of presidency continue to rage, Minster of Works, Babatunde Raji Fashola raised the ante recently following his disclosure that there was indeed an unwritten agreement among leaders of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2015 to rotate presidency between North and South. Reacting to the claim and why the party is not pushing it, the APC Northeast Vice Chairman, Mustapha Salihu asked Fashola to explain the quarters where it was done and the parties to the unwritten agreement. He said: “For example, if he said, so so persons were parties, then we can ask if there was such or not. If for example there wasn’t agreement like that, somebody may insinuate based on his own personal interest that, yes, there was something like that. First, he has to provide people that were privy to that agreement. Even if he didn’t mention names, he will say the stage where it was done, whether at the point of merger, then you know, from research those that participated in the merger. “I can’t tell you yes or no because I was not privy to that agreement. If people who were privy to it will say, yes, there was, then they will be the ones championing it and prevailing on the party to implement it.

“If I was there when such agreement was made, I would be among the people pointing it out and hammering on the party to remember the agreement made. Until somebody is privy to it, that is when the person will be able to comment on this matter and that is when the person will be able to pressurize the party to see that it implements what was agreed upon even though it was a gentleman’s agreement. Most of these types of agreements are unwritten and people as gentlemen try to uphold it.” According to Salihu, there were stages during the formation of the party; there were consultations for alliances and after that, there were consultations for merger, before the merger. After the merger, there was candidature, that is the primaries and after that, there was general election, adding that, “so, you know at what point it was done and the key players at that time.” “Everything was on the papers and you know at certain times the representatives of the blocs that formed the party. If it was available, everybody will know who were at Campaign Council at that time. If it was before primaries, everybody knows those who were members of the primary election committee and on each camp. Everybody knows who were in Buhari’s camp, likewise who were in Atiku’s camp. If the agreement was before the primaries, these were the key players and if it was after primaries, these are the key players,” Salihu stated.

Also, former Minister of Information and founding member of the party, Prince Tony Momoh, said, asking him such question was not fair, as it tantamount to revealing everything that happened in the party, asking the reporter if he announces in the market place all that happened during their editorial meetings. “Have you asked Bisi Akande? Do you want me to say in the public all that happened in the party from the time of consultations, agreements reached, conventions, primaries, et cetera. Do you as a reporter go to the market place to announce all that happened during your editorial meetings? It is not fair.

“There were lots of agreements reached as a party. If you are talking of an agreement to rotate or not to rotate; if you want to know agreements that were written, go and look at the manifesto and the constitution, they are documented. If you want to know what happened behind the scene, you can investigate. The structure of Nigeria is presidential system, and not parliamentary. In a presidential system, there are certain things you cannot do. You cannot pick the governor and his deputy from the same local government; you cannot pick the president and the vice president from the same local government, the same state, and the same zone. “It is zoned North and South and that is why you see now that what has emerged is that both Christians and Muslims have a voice. Once upon a time, Muslim-Muslim ticket could fly, but now you will find it difficult to find Muslim-Muslim ticket because of divergencies, differences of vested interests. In a parliamentary system, there is no need for zoning, but in a presidential system, you will zone and if you don’t zone, it is to your own detriment.

“Gone are the days, for instance, in a presidential system, you have an Awolowo and an Umeadi, both from the South. The risk they were taking was that they couldn’t have votes from the North. Now, it is impossible for someone to have running mate from the same zone because we have North and South. It is big risk for someone to fly Muslim-Muslim ticket or Christian-Christian ticket because religion has come into play. In the same vein, Ambassador Yahaya Kwande said he doesn’t know of such an unwritten agreement. According to him, in a newspaper interview, he stated that the issue of zoning started from the NPN era.

“The whole thing was voluntary, not asked for by Northerners. I was one of those that attended meeting at the Festac. We were there and Akinloye and the rest of the people in the South told us that at the moment, the supporters seemed to be coming from the North, and you were the ones promoting NPN and we accepted it, therefore we are going to concede the presidency to you in the North and then West the leadership of the party and East for the vice presidency. That was what happened. Akinloye had it and also Ekwueme, and Shagari was elected. Then, there was a coup. “The South has three zones and the North has three zones also. Obasanjo did that of the West; Jonathan did that of the South-South. So, if it moves now to the South, in my own opinion unless the people of South decide otherwise, it would have been the Southeast now. In the North, we have the Northwest, the Northeast and the North Central. When it moves to the North, it should circulate among the North Central, Northeast and Northwest.

“As far as I’m concerned, the arrangement for the PDP is such that the North will still have the next four years after Buhari, so that it will shift back to the South; and in the South, the Southeast will have it. But then, APC seems to be mixing it up because of the personalities involved. Our politics in Nigeria is more of personalities than of ideology and that is why people are confused. “Probably Fashola knows about the agreement but if there was, we don’t know about it. He knows it, he should tell us more about it. Even that of the PDP was unwritten. This thing should not bring any problem in Nigeria because it is not a constitutional matter.” Going further, former Lagos State Chairman of the party, Henry Ajomale, said there was such an agreement and warned the party leadership against taking any decision that will contravene the unwritten agreement among leaders of the party in 2015 that power should rotate between the North and the South. Ajomale said presidency should go to the South immediately President Muhammadu Buhari completes his tenure in 2023. He warned that contravening the agreement would spell doom for the party.

“We in the South will not fold our hands if any group or individual attempts to derail this arrangement. We know what the South did, especially the Southwest to ensure that Buhari emerged as the president in 2015. Before then he had contested and lost on more than two occasions. It was when he entered into an alliance with the Southwest leaders that it became possible for him to win the presidency. So it will be unfair to deny the South presidency in 2023,” he declared. Asked why the party is not pushing it if there was such an agreement, Ajomale retorted: “I still believe that we should give the APC leadership benefit of the doubt, more so, since nobody in the party has spoken on the matter for now. It should not be assumed that the party is not pushing it. We should be patient for now on the issue but I believe the party will do the needful at the appropriate time.’’ Advising Northerners opposed to the unwritten agreement to desist from making any plot to truncate the gentleman’s agreement. The APC chieftain stated that such plot will not augur well not only for APC but the nation as a whole.

“Any plot to keep the presidency in the North in 2023 will backfire. Those Northerners alleged to be making such moves should stop it because if they continue, it is an evil plot that will have consequences not only for the APC but also for Nigeria as a nation. I will therefore advise any Northerner involved in such plot to stop because it will have ugly consequences,” Ajomale declared. Senator Kabiru Marafa, a chieftain of the APC in Zamfara state argued that the controversy over the zoning of the party’s ticket in the 2023 presidential election is immaterial, even as he noted that he would conditionally support whatever decision the party has taken. “One remembers vividly how in 1999 when Dr Alex Ekwueme, Adamu Ciroma, Dr Olusola Saraki, Dr Ogbonnaya Onu, Umaru Shinkafi and Abubakar Rimi were persuaded to step down and allow the Falae/Obasanjo model because of national unity. And zoning coming South, the truism is that 2023 is the turn of Southeast to preside over Nigeria, since the Southwest and South-South had presided,” he said.

In his contribution, the Director-General of the forum of governors on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Salihu Mohammed Lukman said the APC will not zone its presidential ticket for the 2023 General Elections. Speaking with newsmen, Lukman argued that foreclosing individuals from seeking elective offices because of their geo-political zone was inimical to the growth of democracy. Lukman, who insisted that President Buhari has no interest in running the party national secretariat and its statutory organs, said it was left for the presidential hopefuls to galvanise support across geopolitical zones to achieve their dream. He said: “Everybody could see that the place is open whether you call it with reference to 2023 or reference to any election, it’s about the fact that the spirit of political contest in the party is now very high. It means that if you want to negotiate as a good negotiator, if you want to canvass as a good canvasser for a specific interest, the party is up to you.

It would be recalled that APC minders sowed the seed for the looming battle between South-West and South-East zones in 2019 while campaigning for President Muhammadu Buhari’s re-election with a promise to both zones that they would produce the president in 2023. During a visit to the Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi, on December 22, 2018, few months to the 2019 presidential poll, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, SAN, said if the South-West want to produce the president in 2023, it should vote for Buhari in 2019. “The 2019 election is our own. We are not looking at 2019 but 2023. If we get it in 2019, Yoruba will get it in 2023. Because if we don’t get it in 2019, we may not get it in 2023 and it may take a very long time to get it. We need to look at tomorrow and not because of today. What we are doing now is for tomorrow and not for today,” he said. In the same token, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, made a similar promise to the South-East. Mustapha reiterated the presidency’s promise to hand over power to the Igbo in 2023 if they support Buhari’s second term ambition when President Buhari met with a delegation of South-East leaders in the state house, Abuja, on November 21, 2018. Speaking to state house correspondents after the meeting, Mustapha said the fastest way for the Igbo to actualize their dream of occupying the seat of power was for the region to support Buhari’s re-election bid in 2019 and then by 2023, the Igbo presidency could become a reality. As the waiting game continues between the PDP and the APC, event watchers are keen on who will be the first to blink even as bookmakers also wait to see how the southeast will react to it should the PDP give its presidential ticket to another zone other than the southeast. Time, they say, will tell.