South South Leader and elder statesman, Chief Edwin Clark, has said it would be erroneous for the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in Delta State, to authorise zoning of 2023 governorship at the next caucus meeting in Asaba.
Clark, who spoke to Vanguard on phone, asserted: “It will be wrong for Delta PDP to ratify zoning at their next caucus meeting. Any decision to zone must be discussed first before you say it is your turn. Why are they putting the cart before the horse?
“If they know every zone has violated senatorial zoning in the state, let us sit down and say now that all the three senatorial zones have got it, which of the zones should now have it. That is how it should be done.
“After Delta Central senatorial district, it will come to this or after Delta South senatorial district, it will come to this and after Delta North senatorial district, it will come to that. Or you can say, okay, like osusu (traditional money collection system), now that we have finished this round, let the North start. It does not mean that if Governor Ifeanyi Okowa goes, it cannot start from the North again. If it is by osusu way that is way it should happen?
“Was there any meeting when it was decided that Urhobos should start the rotation on senatorial basis or Urhobos are using their majority in the PDP caucus and knowledge to want to impose their wish on other Deltans.
“If it is so, what are we in the South-South part of the country generally fighting the North for? We are saying that they cannot use their population and education to oppress the minority.
“What the Ijaws are saying is that we are in minority, our area is peculiar to other areas. The Urhobos have only the Urhobos in Delta Central, the Aniomas have only the Igbo-speaking people in Delta North, but in Delta South, you have the Isokos, the Ijaws and the Itsekiris and for anybody to say that you cannot zone, according to ethnicity, can you do anything in Delta state without saying that you are doing it on ethnicity.
“So if you saying that cultural dance troupes should be invited, are you going to invite only Itsekiri dancers from Delta South, leave Ijaw and Isoko and you take Urhobo, take Anioma, will it work in the state? So every situation requires a particular solution, we have five ethnic nationalities in the state. Everything has been done on that, not based on senatorial zones. So if three of them have got it, other two are saying that we want to have it,” he said.
