‘For fair play’ — APC asked to zone n’assembly leadership to south-east, north-west 

The National Unity Group (NUG) has asked the All Progressives Congress (APC) to consider zoning the leadership of the 10th assembly to the south-east and north-west. 

In a statement issued on Monday, Omotayo Gbadebo, NUG’s national chairman, said the proposed zoning arrangement if adopted will douse the “high political tension” in the country.

Gbadebo said the “zoning formula” is similar to that of 1999 to 2007 and would “usher in peace and douse tension”.

“The scenario we are in now is similar to what we had in 1999. Remember that because of June 12, the military decided to compensate the south-west for peace to reign,” the statement reads.

“Hence Alliance for Democracy (AD) was registered even when it did not meet up with the requirements and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) deliberately picked a Yoruba man, Chief Obasanjo as its candidate and its vice president (Atiku Abubakar) from north-east.

“When the government was sworn in, the senate president was given to the south-east (Evans Enwerem/Chuba Okadigbo/Anyim Pius Anyim), speaker of the house of representatives was given to the north-west (Salisu Buhari/Ghali NaÁbba/Aminu Masari) while deputy senate president went to north-central (Haruna Abubakar/Ibrahim Mantu) and deputy speaker to the south-south (Chibudom Nwuche/Austin Opara). The PDP national chairman (Solomon Lar) was from north-central.

“Presently, there are mindless killings in the south-east and agitations as it was in the south-west then let the party give them senate president so that they can have a sense of belonging in the Nigerian project. For north-west, it is the biggest geo-political zone with the highest number of votes (2.9m) in the presidential elections, which is approximately 34 percent of the total votes that gave the president-elect victory. As such, you can’t abandon this geopolitical zone with seven states.

“Therefore, for fair play, equity and morality, north-west should be given the number 4 position for the zone to have a sense of belonging in the project Nigeria, while south-east should be given number 3. Anything short of number 4 for the north-west will be morally wrong and it will be tantamount to rejection or non-recognition of the zone which contributed more than any other zone in the emergence of the president.

“We are urging the APC leadership and president-elect to as a matter of equity, fairness and stability of the nation, pay special attention to the appropriate zoning of principal offices and political positions in the next administration.”