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The Nigeria’s ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) said that the northern part of the country will still produce the next president in 2011 when the current tenure of President Umar Yar’adua who is sick is finished next year.
The statement came in as the party’s first official response to former President Olusegun Obasanjo who said he was not aware of any zoning arrangement within the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the party yesterday reaffirmed that its presidential ticket remains zoned to the Northern part of the country.
Former President Obasanjo was himself a beneficiary of zoning formula when he became president in 1999. He served for eight years before handing over to Yarádua through most adjudged flawed election in 2007. Also, it was the northern region that supported Obasanjo, brought him out from prison where he was serving life jail for alleged coup d’état against the government of late Sani Abacha. Obasanjo is from the southern Nigeria.
PDP National Secretary Alhaji Abubakar Kawu Baraje said the party has not changed its position on zoning in an apparent reference to the comments made by former President Obasanjo, which has generated controversy.
Speaking in an interview with the Voice of Nigeria (VOA) last Friday, Obasanjo had said there was no zoning of the presidency to the North and that there is no arrangement that precludes any Nigerian from contesting or from becoming the President of Nigeria.
Former Finance Minister Adamu Ciroma and PDP National Chairman Prince Vincent Ogbulafor had earlier spoken on the zoning of the party’s presidential ticket to the North.
Baraje said: "The National chairman (Prince Vincent Ogbulafor) made a statement sometimes back and he has not refuted it but some elders of the party who are supposed to know better, who are supposed to give correct impression about the party seem to be misguiding the public. The Constitution of the Federal Republic gives right to any Nigerian to say whatever he wants to say provided he does not go against the law but I want to say categorically here that there are lots of rules, lots of agreements that are not written and it is not just by saying they are not in the constitution and then they are no rules.
"These are rules that are conventional and become tradition in any society. Zoning is one of them and we are not saying it is permanent but if that arrangement is going to be changed, it will take more than just anybody coming on the pages of the newspapers and saying the zoning is not there, it must take the relevant people coming together reaching the agreement as against the agreement that was reached by the founding fathers of this party, even in America.
“We have not refuted what the National Chairman said on zoning, it is still in the North," he added.
The Nigeria’s ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) said that the northern part of the country will still produce the next president in 2011 when the current tenure of President Umar Yar’adua who is sick is finished next year.
The statement came in as the party’s first official response to former President Olusegun Obasanjo who said he was not aware of any zoning arrangement within the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the party yesterday reaffirmed that its presidential ticket remains zoned to the Northern part of the country.
Former President Obasanjo was himself a beneficiary of zoning formula when he became president in 1999. He served for eight years before handing over to Yarádua through most adjudged flawed election in 2007. Also, it was the northern region that supported Obasanjo, brought him out from prison where he was serving life jail for alleged coup d’état against the government of late Sani Abacha. Obasanjo is from the southern Nigeria.
PDP National Secretary Alhaji Abubakar Kawu Baraje said the party has not changed its position on zoning in an apparent reference to the comments made by former President Obasanjo, which has generated controversy.
Speaking in an interview with the Voice of Nigeria (VOA) last Friday, Obasanjo had said there was no zoning of the presidency to the North and that there is no arrangement that precludes any Nigerian from contesting or from becoming the President of Nigeria.
Former Finance Minister Adamu Ciroma and PDP National Chairman Prince Vincent Ogbulafor had earlier spoken on the zoning of the party’s presidential ticket to the North.
Baraje said: "The National chairman (Prince Vincent Ogbulafor) made a statement sometimes back and he has not refuted it but some elders of the party who are supposed to know better, who are supposed to give correct impression about the party seem to be misguiding the public. The Constitution of the Federal Republic gives right to any Nigerian to say whatever he wants to say provided he does not go against the law but I want to say categorically here that there are lots of rules, lots of agreements that are not written and it is not just by saying they are not in the constitution and then they are no rules.
"These are rules that are conventional and become tradition in any society. Zoning is one of them and we are not saying it is permanent but if that arrangement is going to be changed, it will take more than just anybody coming on the pages of the newspapers and saying the zoning is not there, it must take the relevant people coming together reaching the agreement as against the agreement that was reached by the founding fathers of this party, even in America.
“We have not refuted what the National Chairman said on zoning, it is still in the North," he added.
