A socio-political group under the aegis of Southern and Middle Belt Leaders Forum, SMBLF, has cautioned Nigerian political parties and political stakeholders against tinkering with the idea of zoning and rotation of political offices, because such action is capable of killing the country.
The forum came up with this in a statement released yesterday captioned “Do you want Nigeria buried? Southern Middle Belt Leaders ask Ango Abdullahi, others” and jointly endorsed by the SMBLF Chairman, Chief Edwin Clark, OFR, who doubles as National Leader of PANDEF; Chief Ayo Adebanjo, Leader of Afenifere group; Prof. George Obiozor, President-General, Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide; and Pogu Bitrus, National President of the Middle Belt Forum.
The group was reacting to a statement credited to Prof. Ango Abdullahi, the Chairman of the Northern Elders Forum, NEF, that zoning is “dead and buried”.
It said the history of zoning between the North and South is common knowledge to everybody and the practice has been respected by all the major political parties in the country, noting that in the year 2018, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, firmly observed the zoning arrangement by having only northern aspirants participate in the party’s presidential primary, which was held in Port Harcourt.
SMBLF described as ‘haughty’, the statement by Prof. Ango Abdullahi, that attention should be focused in quality rather than power rotation, and wondered what part of the country that does not have quality persons. It alleged that Prof. Abdullahi is a man with established disposition of duplicity and inconsistency and one of the people disturbing the polity and peace of Nigeria. They said Prof. Abdullahi and his northern elders do not have the power to kill and bury zoning; and that if they want to kill and bury Nigeria, then SMBLF is ready for them.
SMBLF also quoted Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State, as saying in a national television, Channels Television that zoning of party and political elective offices exists in All Progressives Congress, APC. Governor El-Rufai further hinted that all the positions earlier held by the North would be swapped with the South and vice versa and that this arrangement was inclusive of the presidency.
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The forum explained that this is why only Northerners vied for the National Chairmanship of the party, which was zoned to the North and micro zoned to the North Central, during the party’s National Convention in March this year.
SMBLF, therefore, warned Southern politicians against accepting any nomination for the post of vice president from any political party. It also called on the people of the Middle Belt Region and all minorities in Nigeria to wake up and work conscientiously with the Southerners.
