The zoning committee of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) led by the Governor of Enugu State, Rt. Hon Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi recommended that the National Chairman of the party should come from the Northern Part of the country.
The committee in their meeting which took place at Fraser Hotel, Abuja resolved that the north and the south should swap current party positions.
The resolution of the committee was contained in the communique released at the end of their meeting on September 30th.
This means the chairman will come from the north while the national secretary will come from the south, among other changes.
Also, the Committee resolved that the presidential ticket of the party will not be zoned yet and should be put on hold.
The presidential candidates are not expected to be selected until the last quarter of 2022, but it would appear a cat-and-mouse game is unfolding between the PDP and the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) over what zone to pick their flag-bearers from.
The communique reads:
“At the end of the deliberations of the PDP National Zoning Committee , it was resolved as follows:
“The National Zoning Committee of the PDP was given the mandate to zone National offices to be contested by all PDP Members of the Party at the PDP National Convention of the Party scheduled for October 30, 2021 by the National Executive Committee of the Party.
“That the mandate of the Committee does not include Zoning of the offices of the President, Vice President and other Executive and Legislative offices of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. And the decision of the Committee to zone the Party offices does not in any way affect the executive and legislative offices in Nigeria.
“That zoning of offices on PDP has traditionally been between the North and South of Nigeria.
“The decision of the PDP Zoning Committee is in line with the Constitution of the Party on Zoning and rotation of Party and national offices in the interest of justice, equity and fairness. Consequently, the current offices being held by officers in the Southern Zones of the country, namely, South West, South East and South South zones , should swap places with the offices currently in the northern zones of Nigeria, namely, North West, North East and North Central zones.
“We want to thank the Party, especially the National Executive Committee that set up this Committee on September 9, 2021 for finding us worthy to serve the Party in the capacity as Zoning Committee members.
“We shall pass on our recommendations to the National Executive Committee of the Party through the National Working Committee of the Party.”
