APC Has Won ‘Hearts Of Southerners’– Ohanaeze Urges PDP To Emulate Ruling Party

Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide, Friday, commended the All Progressive Congress (APC) for zoning its presidential ticket to the South of Nigeria.

According to the pan-Igbo group, APC has, by the zoning pattern, shown the way for others to follow.

Ohanaeze stated this in a statement by its national publicity secretary, Alex Ogbonnia, which was made available to THE WHISTLER in Enugu.

Ogbonnia said, “The concept of zoning of political offices was first introduced in the Second Republic by the National Party of Nigeria as a way of managing the diverse inter-ethnic tensions.

“Also, during a National Constitutional Conference, following the annulment of the June 12 1993 presidential election, a number of prominent leaders advocated rotating the presidency between the North and the South and specifically among the six geopolitical zones (north-central, north-east, north-west, south-east, south-south, and south-west).

“The zoning principle attained a healthy climax with the Peoples Democratic Party-led government, under Chief Olusegun Obasanjo. During the Obasanjo democratic era, zoning of political party offices was also displayed publicly to the admiration of all the participants.

“The zoning principle also applied to the ministries of the federal government, such that some ministries, categorized as Grade A, B, C, etc were resolved across the six geo-political zones of the country to ensure balance.

“The APC, in order to beat the PDP in their own game, in 2014 zoned their presidential candidate to the North and the vice-presidential candidate to the South and that was the APC trump card for the 2015 general election. “

Ohanaeze recalled that the governor of Kaduna State, Nasir Ahmad El Rufai, said APC had “always applied zoning in the three previous elections.”

El-Rufai had two days ago stated that APC had agreed on a zoning formula for all the six geo-political zones. Ohanaeze quoted El-Rufai to have said, “The northern zone will have the positions the South have had in the last eight years; and vice versa.”

Ohanaeze stated further that, “APC has by the above decision won the hearts of the Southern Governors’ Forum, comprising governors from PDP, APC, and the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide, Afenifere, Southern and Middle Belt Leadership Forum, Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF) and indeed all Nigerian compatriots.

“It is hoped that the PDP will emulate APC by zoning its presidential ticket to the South. It is worth reiterating that the bane of Nigerian politics is rooted, among others, in lack of principles.”