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PDP zones 2019 presidency to north

By Azimazi Momoh Jimoh, Abuja
01 October 2015   |   3:38 am
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has resolved to pick its presidential candidate for the 2019 Presidential Election from the North.
Prince Uche Secondus

Prince Uche Secondus

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has resolved to pick its presidential candidate for the 2019 Presidential Election from the North.

Acting National Chairman of the party, Prince Uche Secondus, who announced the decision while receiving the report of the PDP Post-Election Review Committee, said the National Working Committee (NWC) had accepted the recommendation of the committee to choose the party’s presidential candidate in 2019 from the North.

Prince Secondus described the report as a turning point in the affairs of the party, noting that PDP is now a well organised political party in Nigeria, ready to play the role of opposition politics.

The acting chairman assured that the committee’s report would be presented before other organs of the party for adoption and ratification.

The Chairman of the post election committee, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, who is also the Deputy President of the Senate, had, while presenting the report, advised the party to “strictly apply the zoning principle at all levels.”

According to Ekweremadu, “since the last president of PDP extraction came from the southern part of Nigeria, it is recommended that PDP’s presidential candidate in the 2019 general elections should come from the northern part of the country in accordance with the popular views expressed in the submissions to the committee. This will also assuage any ill feelings in the North over any perceived breach of the party’s zoning principle.”

The committee also noted that the role of party leader has “no basis in the constitution of the PDP,” and recommended for its abolition at all levels. This, it said, is to strengthen the structure of the party at all levels.

The committee further advised that the party should ‎do away with the use of delegates to elect its candidates for elections, which it said “has been grossly compromised and abused.”

Instead, it recommended the adoption of direct primary as sole means of electing PDP candidates for any election at all levels, which it said is a way of returning the party to the people, as true owners of PDP.

“It is recommended that the party should henceforth be self-funding, relying on membership registration and enforcement of dues and levies in line with the PDP constitution. This is with a view to ending the prevailing situation where those who pay the piper call the tune,” Ekweremadu stated.

He proposed a nationwide biometric members registration to align the party records with modern technology and further boost the integrity of membership records.

‎The committee was inaugurated on May 5, 2015 in the wake of PDP’s poor performance in the last general elections, with a nine-term reference.

8 Comments

  • Author’s gravatar

    Zoning is not the Choice of the People would not be accepted by anyone, now and in the future. Is total undemocratic. Everyone should Contest and in this process the Choice of the People will prevail . This is not kingship . Zoning undermines integrity of a modern civilised nation . We are not living in dark. United States of America is not zoining !!! Democrats are not zoning and Republicans are not zoning , everyone is on the board to competit . PDP dont bring your integrity down . Allow everyone to competit , who is from the South and who is North , dont make that mistake .. Tribalism and ethnism will never rule Nigeria . Eweremadu your are not to decide where the presidency goes or anyone , is the People of Nigeria who decides who they want period. You undermines Nigerians integrity you are zoning what to what , PDP is Open , if you want to Contest come up ..

    • Author’s gravatar

      I support you. But, don’t waste your time, because none of the concerned people will listen you. Here, where I live, anybody can stand for election anywhere in the country. The local govt Chairman of the town in which I live is totally a stranger. It is like an Hausa man from Kano is elected as the Chairman of one of the LGAs of Edo State, when he never resided even in Edo state. That happened, here, in Sweden.

      We are not the only people who have different ethnic groups. In Europe there are also ethnic groups with different dialets.The Germans speak ‘High German’ and other dialets. High German simply means something like correct German or offical German or perfect German. If you learnt German at school in Nigeria, you may encounter difficulties in Germany, when you are talking with Germans who speak ‘Pigin German’.

      African cultures are killing Africans politically through zoning. Okay, you chop I chop!

    • Author’s gravatar

      Society moves in stages to attain perfection. Nigeria today is not America . America and her people are miles ahead so the comparison is very deceitful. We are not there yet, but to be there, we must evolve an African sustainable approach.

  • Author’s gravatar

    Good work. Let the north produce the next candidate of the party ,so the cry of the party not following their constitution will be put to rest. The best noval idea being doing away with delegates but using direct primaries.

  • Author’s gravatar

    Igbos, anoda missed opportunity!

  • Author’s gravatar

    This dangling carrot is for Atiku and Kwakwanso. APC fall is at hand.

  • Author’s gravatar

    PDP is noted for the promotion of mediocrity. Taking the presidential ticket to the North is an after thought. It is a demonstration of the poverty of ideas that are embedded in PDP. Let them leave it open to all sections of the polity and look for bright candidates, which sadly are lacking in that corrupt party, that ruined Nigeria after sixteen years of poor and corrupt leadership.

  • Author’s gravatar

    Secondus & Co big thinkers for Nigeria – can I ask these; When do you from the South-East propose to be listed as part of the political leaders in Nigeria? Before 2010 and into 2011 the argument was; It was Northern turn for the Presidency not Jonathan’s – i. e. South-South! Behold we carried on with the debates and argument until sanity prevailed; then came 2015 it was clear that the Presidency was going to shift to the North apart from the expectations in the South-South on the grounds, that it must go to the North (I mean we saw the gimmicks in the PDP’s camp) and no doubt Prof. A. Jega knew what he was doing hitherto the elections with the voting card distributions – most political observers saw also that it was expedient in view of the insurgency in the country! I saw this earlier and so urged them to consider One term of 5 (five/six) years so that you don’t incure the expenditure in incumbency election the kind we have in Nigeria, which gulps huge sums of public money as we witnessed it – the effect of the expenditures is still reverberating in the country, folks! Now the election came and passed and we have a Northern president; you’ll then think/ hope thereafter that their aspiration has been settled or satisfied irrespective of from which party! Now, going by the argument – after North it should go to South why then is Secondus and group feel that the Presidency should remain in the North come 2019 ( i. e. if Buhari is not contesting) if not as a result of that cowardice I talked ABOUT INHERENT IN NIGERIA’S POLITICAL SCENARIO over the years!

    I heard Alhaji Shekaru yesterday talk about effect of majority in elections. Yes, majority indeed, he forgets that the same majority could still work if you had the rotational arrangement suggested in the Confab meting held last year for the sake of the lact of that political participation everybody is complaining about in Nigeria! Incidentally, I raised a ‘new solution’, like the Option A-4, for electing political leaders for Nigeria, which should afford us the possiblity of electing that ‘Best amongst equal’ euphemism in politics for the first time in Nigeria irrespective of the party you belong to and not through caucus arrangement as it is tending to be again from what I heard coming from Alhaji Shekaru, and I have tried to urge you guys to look it up! The solution is with the Senate President and also in the SGF’s office in Abuja handed in on 2nd Feb. 2015. If you can comprehend the import in that solution you’ll all be laughing and nomore moaning during and after elections in that country!

    You recall just last moth Nigeria’s UNO’s Security Council Presidency came to an end and it was managed by a woman over that year duration in accordance with the terms and conditions of the Council. Now, if the presidence was zoned to Nigeria and the leadership fell to a woman – a World Council for that matter, why can we not have that kind of arrangement in Nigeria ( we hear that they have it for the Swiz Federation) so that we can resolve for the first time, who is really responsible for the woes of Nigerian politics in time!

    Sorry for want of time, I CANNOT SPEND THE WHOLE DAY ON THIS MATTER BUT TO LET YOU KNOW THAT YOU NOW HAVE SOMETHING IN ABUJA THAT CAN HELP THE SITUATION IN NIGERIA such that after each elections in the zones you’ll all go home and sleep peacefully hence forward! It is interesting that you’re just beginning to appreciate the effects and advantages of Option A-4 after how many years you left it in the doldrums – 23 years! To say that this new leaderhsip solution will save you Billions in monetary and human terms/ consideration the psychological effect notwithstanding, folks! I considered that since you do not have any ways/ means of educating the electorates about the essence of elections, and for Nigeria, I decided that this may well be the answer to the problems just as Option A-4 is helping in the country!

    So, please look up my new solution for zoning of your presidency and see how it can help you more, than the arguments after each elections in Nigeria of ‘who next’ – end of the day you don’t get the character that can do the job as expected for the country! This is it; I felt I should elucidate need for the solution more! Recall that I suggested need ‘National Orientation’ and national guards men along with the Option A-4 solution that early in 1992 also but the question of: Who do you tell and he/ she is ready to act early remains a Big problem for Nigeria, folks! I mean do rotational Presidency for Nigeria and you’ll see the benefit, after all Gen. Y. Gowon wished for it also! I mean going by my contributions for Nigeria from 1986 to date by way of solution provider, I can easily qualify as/ be one