The Peoples Democratic Party( PDP), yesterday, zoned its chairmanship position to the North.
Chairman of the party zoning committee and Enugu Governor, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, disclosed this at the end of a meeting in Abuja.
The commitee was, however, silent on which of the zones would produce the party’s 2023 presidential candidate.
Ugwuanyi explained that the committee’s decision would not affect executive and legislative offices in the 2023 general elections.
“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 Nigeriam” he said.
The Enugu governor said the committee resolved that in line with the constitution of the party, all positions occupied by the south in the party’s National Working Committee (NWC) would go to the north, while positions occupied by the north would be filled by southern candidates at the October 30 national convention.
“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.”
Ugwuanyi said the decision of the committee would be sent to the PDP National Executive Committee (NEC) for ratification.
The decision of the zoning committee comes on the heels of the resolution by PDP Governors Forum that the north should produce the next national chairman of the party.
The governors at a meeting in Abuja on Wednesday had resolved that the chairmanship position be ceded to the North.
A meeting of the Zoning Committee, in Enugu, last Thursday, had ended in a stalemate as members could not agree on a zoning formula for party offices.
With the new zoning formula, the north would now produce the national chairman, deputy national chairman 1, national organising secretary, national youth leader, national legal adviser and national treasurer.
On the other hand, the South will produce the deputy national chairman 2, national secretary, deputy national secretary , national publicity secretary, national woman leader, national financial secretary and national auditor.
