Despite approval by the National Executive Council (NEC) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on the zoning arrangement of the National Working Committee (NWC) offices, opposition has continued to mount against the ambition of the national chairman, Senator Ali Modu Sheriff, to succeed himself.
The Governor Udom Emmanuel-led committee had zoned the national chairmanship of the party to the North-East where Sheriff is from. Some party leaders have kicked against the zoning arrangement and Sheriff ’s plot to succeed himself. New Telegraph gathered yesterday that a meeting of some top leaders of the party from the North would hold in Abuja tomorrow to review the arrangement.
He said that the meeting would take a position on the zoning arrangement, against the backdrop that the PDP has zoned its presidential candidate to the North in 2019. He said that the zoning arrangement, as adopted by the NEC, was akin to manipulation and a plot to scatter the PDP by some joiners in the party.
“When we founded the PDP, were these people there? How come they want to scatter an arrangement that has persisted since 1999? Where were all these Sheriffs, (Kashamu) Burujis and (Ayodele) Fayoses when this party was founded in 1998 and the foundations were laid? “If they insist on going this route, it means they would have their own convention to elect Sheriff and we would do ours to elect a member of the PDP.
We cannot allow them to toy with the party,” said another source. It was also gathered that leaders of the party in the South-West are also meeting tomorrow in Akure, the Ondo State capital. The meeting, which is at the instance of Governor Olusegun Mimiko, is to harmonise the position of the zone on the contentious issue of zoning, where the South-West has been left out of the chairmanship slot.
Leaders of the party in the zone are unhappy at the actions of some elements in the zone who practically sold out the position to the North- East, even when it was clear that the battle was between the South-West and South-South initially. “When we get to the meeting, we will take a decision.
Whatever we decide there would be binding on all of us. It is not about one person. It is about the zone. We are the only zone that has not had a taste of the chairmanship since 1999. “If after our meeting, they still insist on it going to the North-East, then, we wish them well.
We are expecting the real leaders of the party at the meeting, not these impostors, parading themselves as leaders of the party in the zone,” a highly placed official in the zone told New Telegraph yesterday. It was gathered that the two meetings may likely come out with positions that would oppose the current zoning arrangement that has placed the chairmanship of the party on the laps of the party’s national chairman, Sheriff. Onetime Political Adviser to former President Goodluck Jonathan, Dr. Ahmed Gulak, said that the zoning arrangement could be altered going into the elections in 2019.
The former presidential adviser said that nothing stopped the party from rezoning the seats to accommodate the zoning of the presidency to the North in 2019. “I am a member of the zoning committee. The NEC of the party has accepted our recommendations and the governors have also accepted it. All the party elders have accepted the recommendations. As for the presidential position, there is nothing that says the position cannot be reviewed before the 2019 elections.
For now, what we have now is how we are going to run,” he said. Prior to last Thursday’s formal ratification of the proposed zoning, which saw the South-South taking the largest chunk of the 12 offices zoned,a leaked report of the committee had unsettled stakeholders in the party, especially in the South- West where a former deputy national chairman of the party, Chief Olabode George, had to summon an emergency meeting with some leaders of the party in the zone.
From all the surreptitious moves, three clear groups emerged in the South-West with different interests. First is the George group, which wanted the national chairmanship slot for the South-West; second is the Buruji Kashamu and Governor Ayodele Fayose group that prefers the North-East, specifically, Sheriff; while the third group is the Ondo State governor, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko’s camp which appears indifferent on where the pendulum swings.
The George’s group comprises a former Minister of Transport, Chief Ebenezer Babatope; for mer presidential spokesperson, Dr. Doyin Okupe; former Minister of Works, Senator Adeseye Ogunlewe, among others. After weeks of political horse-trading and intrigues, the Kashamu- Fayose movement had the last laugh when the NEC affirmed the zoning committee report.
The arrangement appears to have given a leeway for Sheriff ’s selfsuccession plan. According to a member of the party’s elders’ council in the zone who prefers to be anonymous, the battle for the control of PDP in the South-West has long been decided before now.
“Senator Kashamu’s hold on the party in the zone started immediately former President Olusegun Obasanjo decided to step aside from the party. He (Kashamu) collaborated with Fayose and singlehandedly installed executives in the zone. He controls five state chairmen except that of Lagos State. Where was Bode George then? They were all busy concentrating on the federal and their respective states then,” the source said.
