Amid the controversies over where the ruling All Progressives Congress might zone its presidential ticket for the 2023 election, a chieftain of the party and Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige, has said the founding fathers of the party won’t speak on the zoning arrangement until 2021.
He said nine among those of them who founded the APC were still in the party and that they would speak at the appropriate time whether or not there was an agreement on the zoning of the presidential ticket of the party for the 2023 election.
He said, “Nine of us are still in the APC. I can’t speak on the issue now. Most of us agreed that we are going to speak next year – from (Bola) Tinubu to Chief (Bisi) Akande, Chief Olusegun Osoba, myself; Tom Ikimi, Yusuf Ali; Ogbonnaya Onu; Danjuma Goje and Senator Wamakko.”
“We will speak next year after we would have done the APC caucus meeting on it. Caucus will agree that we speak on it publicly.”
Recent opposing claims by foundation members of the APC over an alleged gentleman’s agreement for a southern candidate to succeed President Muhammadu Buhari in 2023 has been causing apprehension within the ruling party, Sunday PUNCH learnt.
Three major opposition political parties, Action Congress of Nigeria, All Nigeria Peoples Party and the Congress for Progressives Change came together and were later joined by a faction of the All Progressives Grand Alliance and other smaller groups to form the All Progressives Congress in 2014.
They were later joined by a group of aggrieved members of the then ruling Peoples Democratic Party under the platform of the New PDP.
It was gathered that fears of a possible decision by northern APC leaders to renege on the 2014 gentleman’s understanding on zoning led to the recent comment by the Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola SAN, for the party to honour the gentleman’s agreement.
Fashola said, “The constitution that sets up the climate of political parties’ formation does not prescribe zoning. The truth is that what makes an agreement specification is the honour in which it is made, not whether it is written.
‘‘If it was written there would be no court cases of breach of contract because it’s a document that is written and signed that goes to court. But the private agreement you make with your brother and sister can be breached, (it) is honour.”
This position was reiterated by the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, in a separate television interview. In response to a question on the zoning issue, he said, “It is a difficult question for me to respond to. I just believe that the zoning which was done in the North and South should be respected, just like Fashola said.”
Fears by party leaders from the South were further heightened by last week’s declaration by the former Zamfara State Governor and chieftain of the party, Senator Sani Yerima, that the much talked about agreement didn’t exist and that even if it did, it was not binding because it neither had a basis in the Nigerian constitution nor that of the APC.
Governor of Ekiti State and Chairman, Nigeria Governors’ Forum, Dr Kayode Fayemi, also kicked against zoning, adding, “there are excellent Nigerians from all parts of the country.”
Disquiet in APC over zoning as chieftains insist on southern candidate
Meanwhile, one of the former ANPP northern governors, actively involved in the merger talks, confided in Sunday PUNCH that before agreeing to bring the Action Congress of Nigeria bloc into the merger, Tinubu extracted an unwritten commitment from leaders of the legacy political parties that power would return to the south.
The former governor said, “Before Tinubu finally agreed for the merger to happen, his principal demand was that after the north, power should shift to the south. That was a gentleman’s agreement which all the parties involved were aware of.
“It was not something that everybody sat down, agreed on and signed in writing. It was a gentleman’s agreement. I remember it was on the final day of the meeting he threatened to pull his ACN block out of the merger if his demands were not met. It is this understanding that ensured that not a single aspirant showed interest in our 2014 primary.
“You will recall that four northerners and Rochas Okorocha from the South East contested that primary which Buhari won. With due respect, Yerima has an ambition which he is entitled to pursue as a Nigerian.”
The former National Secretary of the defunct Congress for Progressive Change, Alhaji Buba Galadima, who was actively involved in talks that led to the merger, told Sunday PUNCH on Saturday, “The gentleman’s agreement was a private arrangement between General Buhari and Asiwaju Bola Tinubu. It wasn’t something that was debated and agreed upon publicly.
Asked whether he was aware of any recent decision to zone the presidency to the south, he said, “It will be political suicide for any party to do that at this time. It is too early.”
A principal officer in the Senate from the southern part of the country, who spoke with one of our correspondents on condition of anonymity, for fear of retribution said the National Executive Committee of the party had already zoned the Presidency to the South but that the decision was yet to be made public.
He said, “How can somebody claim that there is no zoning arrangement in the APC? Is he bigger than NEC? The former governor of Zamfara State who was quoted to have denied knowledge of the zoning arrangement in the APC is constitutionally empowered to contest the next presidential election but the party would take the final decision.
“If the party says he cannot contest election, there is nothing he can do. The NEC has taken a decision to zone the party to the south, although it has not made it public.”
However, another pioneer member of the APC, Mr Rotimi Fashakin, said some powerful politicians who supported Buhari to emerge as the candidate of the party could have extracted some commitments from him and that such might not be open to others.
He said, “Of course, you will understand that when the merger was finalised, we were to go into the Presidential primary which was held at the Teslim Balogun Stadium. There was a lot of horse trading. General Buhari said publicly back then that he didn’t have dollars to give and even if he had, he wouldn’t give.
“You know some powerful people were behind his nomination and they were powerful enough to make his nomination possible despite his financial constraints and the threat from the people with deep pockets. At that level, some promises could have been extracted or made before such support was given. That is why I said, in politics and in political associations, there is information that you don’t give across the board, it is on a need-to-know basis.”
In response to a question on comments made by Fashola on the issue, Fashakin said, “Remember Babatunde Fashola was the governor of Lagos State, there were consultations and commitments extracted or exchanged that not all of us were privy to.”
Another pioneer APC member, Mr Nelson Alapa, who was until recently the Chairman of the APC Non-NWC NEC members, while responding to the same question, said, “At the take-off of any political momentum, there is written and unwritten understanding. One would ordinarily believe that the next dispensation, which is 2023, power should move from the North to the South, I am one of those who believe in that.
“Whether it is cast in stone or not, there is an understanding. We always have this moral understanding, there isn’t any written document but this understanding has always been there.”
Another pioneer member, Mr Osita Okechukwu, who is the current Director-General of the Voice of Nigeria, said it had been implied since 1999 that power should rotate between North and South.
He added, “In politics not everything is written in black and white, there are agreements between gentlemen. More than anything else, the refusal of the then President Goodluck Jonathan to respect this unwritten agreement, coupled with the fact that the emergence of the then Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), was an idea whose time had come, culminated in PDP’s resounding defeat in 2015.
(Punch)
