By Gabriel Atumeyi
A former senior special assistant on public affairs to former president Goodluck Jonathan, Doyin Okupe has enjoined the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to Zone its presidential ticket to the South like its opponents and ruling party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) intends to do.
Okupe said that given the ethnic biases of the Nigerian electorate, if the PDP as the major opposition party decide to zone the ticket to the North in order to exploit the sentiment of the region to gain power, it will be a negation of fairness and equity as the north would have rule the nation for 16 straight years.
In a statement on Thursday, titled: PDP and Zone for 2023, he said any such politcal calculation would ensure that the north holds the rein of the country in perpetuity, which is fraudulent and unacceptable.
According to him, Nigeria’s politcal history and transition is one of politcal concession intended to foster unity and cement the bonds of nationhood, which has been highlighted by some principles in our national constitution.
Okupe said: “The official zoning of the Presidency to the south in 2023 by the APC is a major political statement that is bound to shape the future of leadership in the country post 2023. This deft move by the APC has made it a political imperative for the PDP leadership to have a rethink and officially zone the Presidency also to the south in 2023.
“Any attempt to jettison the zoning policy which is central to pdp conventional policy will be fraudulent and unacceptable. If the pdp picks a northern candidate for the 2023 elections and because the nigerian electorates are still largely parochial, that candidate wins at the general elections, then the north will rule for another 8years, making 16years at a stretch.
“If this type of ” clever political manouvering,” is employed to alternate northern candidates between political parties, then it is possible for the north to rule the country in perpetuity. This is wholesomely unacceptable and undesirable and will not augur well for our national unity and peaceful coexistence.
“There is no doubt that what I am proposing is a form of political concession. But this is not strange in our political system and history. To assuage the southwest in 1999 after Abiola’s victory and unfortunate death, a national concensus was adopted to ensure the emergence of a southwest President.
“Also pre independence, the entire south had to wait for 2years for the North to join the union and form the federal republic of Nigeria. We also have since implemented various concessionary policies to ensure continued unity of the country. These policies include the federal character policy and the concession for the educationally disadvantaged states in the federation for the purpose of giving children from the less educationally developed states to gain admission into tertiary institutions across the nation.
Okupe further disclosed that it shouldn’t be forgotten that a zone in the South is yet to produce the president and that exclusion and marginalizations are largely responsible for the insecuriy being experienced in parts of the country.
“Therefore for the purpose of equity, fairness and continued unity of the country, our party the PDP must categorically adopt the same position as the APC and zone the presidency to the south. To do otherwise is to exploit political crass opportunism which will be insensitive to the current feeling among most self respecting southerners in the country.
“It is an undeniable fact that cannot be ignored that a zone in the south is yet to produce an elected president. These are not normal times in our country. Hatred and ethnic disharmony is rife and separatists movements are getting more and more entrenched in our polity.
“Any politics that does not take into consideration the barometric pressures within its polity is self serving and destructive. The unity and continued peaceful coexistence of our nation can only be predicated on the time tested principle of equity, fairness and justice.
Though the APC is yet to formally zone the ticket to the South there have been clamor from several bigwigs in the party across the country for the south to produce the party’s Presidential candidate. They include Nasir El-Rufai, Governor Sule of Nassarawa, Gov. Zulum, Senator Ali Ndume among others.