Director General of Voice of Nigeria (VON), Osita Okechukwu, has chided the Bauchi State governor, Bala Mohammed, over his comments on the zoning of the 2023 presidency in the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
He said Mr Mohammed got it wrong when he said with the new zoning formula of the APC, the ruling party is not a threat to the governor’s party, PDP.
Mr Okechukwu stated this while speaking to journalists in Abuja on Thursday
In the new zoning formula agreed by the APC on Tuesday, the North will produce the next national chairman of the party. This implies that the party may pick its presidential candidate from the South.
Other positions in the National Working Committee were also zoned.
Mr Mohammed said with the new zoning formula, the APC would not pose a threat to the former.
Mr Mohammed , who spoke during his visit to former president Olusegun Obasanjo in Abeokuta on Wednesday, said the APC “is not a threat to the PDP because each party is trying to strategise, to plan and organise.”
“If they zone to the South, it is open to us to see how it is going to give us more electoral victory or if we put it to the North it will give us more electoral victory,” said Mr Mohammed, who is a presidential aspirant on the PDP platform.
“This is the kind of things we are doing; the leg works, the permutations and so and so forth so that, at least, whatever we are going to do, is give us and provide for Nigerians to choose between the best alternatives.”
Reacting to Mr Mohammed’s comment, Mr Okechukwu said his disposition shows the lack of dynamism in the political thinking of the PDP.
He added that the opposition party has shown that it is incapable of upstaging APC, especially when the unity and prosperity of Nigeria is not uppermost in their calculations.
“Methinks if the statement credited to him is correct, His Excellency, Bala Mohammed and by extension PDP, is simply being opportunistic by saying that APC’s zoning of Presidency to the South is not a threat to the PDP, because if we put it to the North, it will give us more electoral victory. That’s ethnic chauvinism. Simple!
“The Bauchi State governor and PDP seems to forget that Nigerians are fair-minded and upholds justice and equity in their voting preferences. That was why the late Moshood Abiola of Social Democratic Party (SDP), defeated Alhaji Bashir Tofa in his Kano State home in 1993.
“In 2023, Nigerians are going to repeat that feat by acknowledging President Muhammadu Buhari and APC’s decision to do the right things for national unity peace and progress.
“To me, the doctrine of swap of offices between the north and the south is a masterstroke by Mr. President and good for APC and Nigerians in every material particular. It is not only a threat to our sister political party, the PDP, but also signals their imminent defeat. My friend governor’s reaction seems inspired by sense of defeatism and phobia for APC.”
“After just seven years in opposition, PDP has retained its character of deception, duplicity, selfishness, promise and fail; otherwise how can a rational political party flagrantly and unscrupulously breach its constitution, which expressly ingrained zoning?” Mr Okechukwu stated.
The VON DG also said the Bauchi governor may be speaking on behalf of those who underrate the political sophistication of the north and their abiding faith in equity, natural justice and good conscience.
“The north cannot be led by the nose by Governor Mohammed and his co-travellers. Have we forgotten how notable northern politicians like Alhajis Abubakar Rimi, Umaru Shinkafi, Adamu Ciroma, Dr Sola Saraki et al out of overriding public interest and uncommon patriotism constructed the zoning convention, which birthed the 4th Republic as the longest democratic era in the annals of Nigerian history?
“I am confident that Nigerians cannot forget in a hurry how PDP nurtured Nigeria towards becoming the World Poverty Capital, gross unemployment and palpable insecurity by their squander mania and share-the-money syndrome which became its slogan.
“Nigerians know that those monies PDP shared among themselves and their cronies were budgeted for critical infrastructure and social development of our dear countrymen. It is therefore ironical that the same PDP is struggling to washoff its hands like Pontus Pilate from squandering money budgeted for military equipment, roads, rails, education and healthcare.
“Or do we forget the less than transparent sale of national assets and State owned Enterprises, where the sordid agreements like that of DISCOs are more or less tailored by tenant for the Federal Government, who is supposed to be the landlord.
“The tenancy-tailored agreements had made it impossible to unbundle the none performing DISCOs and free Nigerians from the yoke. That is the darkness we cannot easily overcome.
“One flatly disagrees with those who say that APC and PDP are the same, because whereas our great party invested in critical infrastructure, PDP shared Nigeria’s money for temporary happiness,” he said.
Ojelabi, the publisher of Freelanews, is an award winning and professionally trained mass communicator, who writes ruthlessly about pop culture, religion, politics and entertainment.
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