The Peoples Democratic Party may zone its national chairmanship position to the South-West, The PUNCH has learnt.
The recommendation to zone the position to the South-West was contained in a leaked working document prepared by the party’s 44-member National Convention Committee on Zoning.
The committee recommended the position of secretary for the North in the document was sighted by our correspondent on Wednesday.
The committee chaired by the Enugu State Governor, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, will meet on Thursday (today).
According to the document, the main consideration is that the zone has not produced the party’s national chairman since inception.
In zeroing in on the South-West, members considered the past distribution pattern of the geopolitical zones that produced chairmen and came to the conclusion that the South-West deserved to get the slot.
Apart from the past distribution pattern, members were said to have noted that before the emergence of Uche Secondus as the national chairman, no fewer than 12 members from the South-West aspired to lead the party before it was taken to the South-South.
The distribution pattern as considered by the party is that the North-Central has produced five past chairmen in persons of Chief Solomon Lar, Barnabas Gemade, Audu Ogbeh, Ahmadu Ali and Kawu Baraje; while the North-East has produced three chairmen in persons of Dr Bamanga Tukur, Dr Adamu Muazu and Senator Ali Modu Sheriff.
The North-West produced two – Dr Haliru Bello and Senator Ahmed Makarfi; the South East produced two – Vincent Ogbulafor and Okwesilieze Nwodo; while the South-South produced Secondus both as acting and as substantive chairman.
“It is now clearly seen that the national chairmanship position has stayed long in the North, and particularly dominant in the North-Central. The South-West had never been given the opportunity.
“In actual fact, it is was an issue generally acknowledged that the national chairmanship was aspired by no fewer than 12 aspirants from South-West before the twist that took it to the South-South,” the document read. (Punch)
