By Chinelo Obogo

Former vice national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for South South, Emmanuel Ogidi and his counterpart for the South West, Olabode George, have said the party would ensure all issues pertaining to zoning of the presidency for 2023 are resolved in the next six months.

Reacting to claims that the PDP has jettisoned its zoning arrangement after the party said its presidential ticket was open to all the zones, George who spoke on Arise TV, said zoning has not been jettisoned, but that the current impasse on where the presidency would be zoned to arose because the party did not envisage it would lose power and another party which would produce the president would be formed.

He said the party has learnt from its mistake and that in the next six months, issues regarding zoning would be resolved.

He said at the inception of the PDP, the founders decided to zone the presidency between the North and the South and for equity, further split the country into six geo political zones out of which the top six positions would be shared.

 “PDP has not jettisoned rotational presidency, what it has done is to give everyone the opportunity to participate. How we came about zoning is that the founding fathers of the party, whom we call the G9 met and decided that we should divide Nigeria into six geo political zones; three in the North and three in the South.

“They said since there are six top positions in government which would be divided among the geopolitical zones, after eight years, all positions in the North would come to the South and all positions in the South would come to the North but the mistake they made was that they didn’t envisage that another political party that can produce the president would emerge. I was shocked when the zoning committee said they were only allowed to zone party positions. If you are zoning the national chairmanship, you must consider where the presidential candidate would come from…

“We have made mistakes and we have learned. At the maximum, six months from now, we would rise above it and come out with a position that would be acceptable to everyone,” George said.

Affirming George’s position Ogidi who was also on Arise TV said: “We are going to feel the pulse of the people and our position will reflect the decision of the people. I have always said PDP was not structured to be in the opposition party, we were structured to rule this country for at least 50 years or more. But you can be sure we are still consulting and the party would make its position, which would be acceptable to Nigerians, known.  

“What George has proposed is correct, we should try and put the arrangement down on paper now.”