There appears to be lingering confusion in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) over the zoning of the president and vice president for the 2023 general elections. The confusion, accordingly, puts the party’s zoning committee into a tight corner. Chairman of the PDP zoning committee, Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu State, at the first meeting of the committee at the Government House, Enugu, had declared that the committeehas no mandate to zone political offices of the president or vice president.
However, the PDP leadership appointed the committee to zone national offices of the party towards the national convention for the election of principal officers of the PDP National Working Committee (NWC) scheduled for October 30 and 31, 2021, in Abuja.
The chairman had declared: “Our committee is strictly limited to the PDP National Executive Offices to be contested at the 2021 PDP National Convention scheduled for the end of October 2021.
“We have no mandate to zone political offices such as President or Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”
However, the zoning of the PDP national chairman, for instance, will reveal where the presidential ticket of the party has been informally zoned before the official pronouncement. It is the tradition of the leading parties that one region cannot have the party’s national chairman and the president simultaneously. As the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has zoned the party’s national chairman to the north, the president is widely believed to have been zoned to the south. So, the PDP formula would be known as soon as the committee reveals where the national chairman is zoned.
Meanwhile, members of the zoning committee include Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State, Deputy Chairman; Deputy Governor Mahdi Aliyu Mohammed of Zamfara State, Secretary; former Presidents of the Senate, Senator Iyorchia Ayu and Senator Anyim Pius Anyim.
Others include former Governors of Niger State, Muazu Aliyu Babangida; Ekiti State, Ayodele Fayose; Sokoto, Attahiru Bafarawa; Jigawa, Sule Lamido, and Adamawa, Boni Haruna; as well as Alhaji Abubakar Kawu Baraje, Kabiru Tanimu Turaki, SAN, Rt. Hon. Sunday K. E. Okoye, Chief Dan Orbih, Chief (Dr.) Ali Odefa, Dr. Kema Chikwe, Chief Osita Chidoka, Barr. Chidi Lloyd, Senator Bassey Ewa Henshaw, Senator Emmanuel Nwaka, Engr. Donatus Udeh, etc.