By Amuda Emmanuel
Ekiti state was created on october
1,1996 by late General Sani Abacha.
After three years of creation, Nigeria
returned to Democracy. Out of the three
zones in the state, two zones(Ekiti
Central and North) had been controlling
the power affairs of the state since 15
years. It was only Ekiti South Senatorial
District that has never produced a
governor of the state.
Zoning or power shifting is the act of
shifting or sharing political offices to
various geo-political zones or districts in
a bid to balance the political equation.
For instance, Ikere Ekiti,one of the 16 local government areas of the state and the second largest city in the state adopted zoning ?from the military era till today Ikere has been using zoning
principle to select their political officers
to various districts, zoning still remains
the best for Ikere town.
It is true that zoning of the office of the
President or Governor is not in the
Nigeria constitution, but it is in the
constitution of the Peoples Democratic
Party(PDP) that propounded it. I refer to
the PDP constitution, Article 7 subsection 2(c) ?which states that in pursuance of the principle of Equity, Justice and Fairness, the party shall adhere to the policy of rotation and Zoning of party and public offices and it shall be enforced by the appropriate executive committee at all levels.(PDP
constitution,1999 as amended).
Therefore, it must be stated point blank
here that there is zoning and rotation
every where, right from the National
level through the various states to Local
Government areas and electoral wards
arrangements across the country. That Is why you have the National Chairman of the party from the North and the
president of the country from south.
The party constitution provides for the
rotation of the officers to the National,
State and local character of geo-political
areas of the country. This is to ensure
that the various posts and position go
round all the geo-political locations for
equity and Fairness. Therefore no
section must feel cheated.
Event has also proven zoning as reality
in the scheme of things in the party. For
instance, we have State PDP chairman
from Ekiti North and Minister appointed in the state from Ekiti Central which means while these two zones has been
produced the two elected Governors
each (Otunba Niyi Adebayo and Dr Ayo
Fayose were from the Ekiti central while
Engr Segun Oni and Present Governor Dr Kayode Fayemi were from the Ekiti
North). It was only Ekiti South that has
never produced a governor of the state.
Ekiti South deserves its own share of
the powerful position of governor. How
it is applied for the development of Ekiti
State should only be analyzed when it
has given the shot at it.
PDP should select the candidate from
Ekiti South Senatorial District, because
it catches the interest of the majority of
Ekiti democrats.
Also, In 1999,former President Olusegun
Obasanjo was elected on the basis of
zonal pacification. The three topmost
political positions of president,vice
president and senate president in
Nigeria are currently occupied on basis
of zoning and even civil society groups
like Academic Staff Union of Universities
(ASUU),Nigeria Labour Congress
(NLC),Nigeria Bar Association(NBA) and
National Association of Nigerian
Students(NANS) have operated zoning
in their leadership successions they
have enjoyed over the years.
Educationally, children from Ekiti state,
Ondo state, etc., are deprived of their
places in Federal Government Colleges
because their less qualified counterparts from other states up North have to be included on basis of zoning. Suffice it to say that PDP as it is known today is not the architect of zoning arrangement in Nigeria politics.
Finally,Article 7.2 (c) a clear political question which only the relevant organ of the party could decide either at its primaries or by a decision of any organ of the party empowered to so choose.
So, if PDP is ready to win the Forthcoming governorship election, the PDP NWC, and the Committee constituted for consensus to select the
candidate should do what is right by
accepting the demand of the Ekiti South
Senatorial District to achieve equity,
justice, and Fairness in the polity.
