*You didn’t vote APC in 2015, 2019, which votes will it lose in 2023? – Source
*Asks where they got their allegation against Gov Buni from
*Says Buni denied zoning APC national Chairmanship, other party offices not Presidency
*New coalition more in favour of PDP than it looks – Another source
*Says, no Northerner wants to retain power in the North
By KEMI KASUMU
According to one of them, “Since 2015, Afenifere and Igbo never voted for APC, yet APC has been in power. So the governing party has no votes to lose with their threats,” adding that “these ethnic jingoists are only wasting their own time because there is no saner Northerner who wants power to remain in the North in 2023”.
The regular antagonists of governing All Progressives Congress (APC), the Yoruba socio-cultural group, Afenifere, and the old flocks of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, who have since been replaced with constitutionally recognised Ohanaeze Ndigbo General Assembly Worldwide, have started the 2023 edition of their anti-APC politicking, but now in different tone.
In 2015 they came with the tone of “any party that would implement Confab Report 2014 we will vote for”. In the end, after the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) lost elections and Muhammadu Buhari-led APC Federal Government came to power, the real reason they were playing ambiguous politics became known. Each of the coalition member e.g. Social Democratic Party, individual PDP leaders took N100 million each to vote for then siting President Goodluck Jonathan of the PDP.
In 2019, they had gotten more members, very strong individuals and political parties and other organisations, who formed themselves into what they called Third Force, a coalition of 48 political parties led by Chief Olusegun Obasanjo. Ethnic groups namely Afenifere, Ohaneze Ndigbo and religious groups namely Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) and National Christian Elders’ Forum (NCEF) principally played roles in the coalition with their campaigns centred on not voting President Buhari because he is a Muslim neither voting him because he is a Northerner in the 2019 general elections.
What the coalition of the strong political and religious men failed, however, to do was addressing the Nigerians’ question of, “If you say we should not vote Buhari of APC because he is a Muslim and Northerner, the PDP’s Atiku Abubakar you want us to vote, is he a Christian and Southerner?” They not only failed to address that valid question but also, they created a slogan “Hunger in the Land” because, at that build up to 2019 elections in 2018, Boko Haram terrorism had been proudably decimated that there was no insecurity to use as campaign tool.
In the aftermath of losing the elections, the ‘hunger’ campaign tool not only refused to go, a resurgence of Boko Haram terrorism suddenly surfaced and the country has been on it till today. So much that despite huge investment in agriculture and security, the fries of hunger abs insecurity grow daily, it has been said.
This time the same elements are at it again, threatening that the party they never voted for, and which still survive their electoral onslaughts, should either field a Southerner for President or lose their votes.
This is a rejigged demand coming after the Igbo version of the threat had earlier called on the APC to field Igbo candidate for President and release of terrorist son Nnamdi Kanu from facing justice for his terrorist activities against Nigeria and humanity of the country he called a zoo, as preconditions for earning their votes and allowing peace to reign in Nigeria.
They have, however, been countered by other Nigerians, who said they, particularly Senator Eyinnaya Aberibe, knew that their votes would always go for Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) or Atiku Abubakar but had to call on APC to zone it to Igbo, as their strategy to make the governing party lose for PDP to return to power.
This time, the demand has been taken into a coalition with other members of the southern societies and now involving Yoruba, Igbo and talking in a way that many have described as creating impression as if it is APC’s agenda to make presidency remain in the North whereas, those who are countering the new coalition say the idea to zone presidency to the North is of PDP.
This was coming as Afenifere and the Igbo leaders, in a latest move as usual, teamed up with Middle Belt Forum (MBF), Yoruba Council of Elders (YCE) and the Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF) and lashed out at Yobe State Governor, Alhaji Mai Mala Buni over a statement credited to him that the All Progressives Congress (APC) had yet to zone its political offices for 2023.
Buni, who is Chairman APC Caretaker Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC), was quoted in a statement signed by his Director General, Press and Media Affairs, Mamman Mohammed in Damaturu, on Wednesday, as saying that reports that the presidential slot was zoned to the South were “false, baseless and unfounded.”
This assertion by the “ethnic jingoists and religious bigots” have been put them up as incoherent using fake sources of information to attempt causing chaos as 2023 elections year approaches.
The APC was reported to also pooh-poohed the list on the zoning of party offices in circulation ahead of its national convention, and described it as fake news. The DEFENDER gathered that that where it was true that Governor Buni denied zoning party offices ahead of APC national convention slated for 26 February this year, that there was no place in the press statement the ethnic leaders referred to, that ‘zoning presidential’ offices were mentioned.
Clarification by the party, however, fell on the “deaf ears” of Afenifere, the illegal group of Ohaneze Ndigbo, YCE, MBF and Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF), who went ahead insisting that all the political parties should zone their presidential ticket to the south in 2023.
The groups insisted that parties that fail to present Southerners as presidential candidates would jettison votes from the South.
Afenifere National Publicity Secretary, Jare Ajayi, said: “Our position is that the presidency should go to the South in 2023. In fact, we have said that all political parties should zone their presidential ticket to the South. That remains our position.”
However, Publicity Secretary of the purported Ohaneze Ndigbo Worldwide, Alex Ogbonnia, said the political parties should specifically zone their presidential ticket to the South East for equity, justice and fair play, thereby vindicating the sources that told The DEFENDER the new edition of coalition by the ethnic groups in the South is an extension of those who want APC to collapse by asking it to zone it’s Presidential ticket to a zone, South East region, where it is never loved nor given any vote.
Ogbonnia further said that Nigeria currently sits in “a precarious balance” and that Gov Buni’s assertion that the presidential ticket has not been zoned further threatened the peace and continued corporate existence of Nigeria.
He said: “Every Nigerian knows it is the turn of the South East to produce the President of Nigeria in 2023. It was done in 1999 when both political parties zoned their presidential ticket to the South West. In 2007, President Olusegun Obasanjo ensured that the presidency went back to the North and the major political parties zoned their presidential tickets to the North.”
Ogbonnia further said that 2023 is a moral burden on the entire country, which can only be assuaged if the presidency is given to the South East.
He added: “There are two kinds of people in this country – those who want Nigeria to remain one and those who want it to disintegrate. President Muhammadu Buhari must take the bull by the horns, he is the leader of the APC and he should ensure that the party’s presidential ticket is zoned to the South East. The President should replicate what President Obasanjo did in 2007 and ensure that power returns to the South East.
According to him, “For peace, justice and equity to reign and for the continued peaceful corporate existence of Nigeria, the political parties should zone their presidential ticket to the South East because we didn’t know for how long we can continue to hold back these young boys.”
The observable avoidance of use of South West in the submissions of the Yoruba groups – Afenifere and Yoruba Council of Elders – as against the way “Ohanaeze” in the coalition expressly use South East showed that the agenda is the election period usual where Afenifere also wants to team up with some sections of Igbo in effort to vote the PDP it always publicly campaign for and even get money from.
Further instance cane from the words of Yoruba Council of Elders (YCE), which also insisted that the Southern part of Nigeria must be allowed to produce the president of the country in 2023, irrespective of political affiliations, in a bid to ensure peace, stability, progress and development for the nation.
Notably, Yoruba Council of Elders does not want power shifted to South West although it did not campaign against it. Its chosen word to use “southern parth” with the same coalition which other members expressly used the word “South East” makes the Afenifere-led coalition 2023 more of a PDP thing and not Igbo agenda as being made to read, another observer analysed.
Secretary-General of the council, Dr. Kunle Olajide, who made the disclosure in a brief telephone interview on Friday, according to a Saturday Sun report, noted that though the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria does not recognise zoning, “morally, Nigerians have accepted the zoning because so many Nigerians want stability, progress, and development of the country.
“This also goes with the fact that Nigerians did not take part in the making of the 1999 Constitution. The 1999 Constitution was written by a few people, during the military regime of Gen Abdulsalami Abubakar, to give us the so-called constitution. In Nigeria, we don’t have our constitution yet. The 1999 Constitution does not accommodate zoning.
“But it is only by zoning that the progress and peace of Nigeria can be guaranteed. The geographical south must be recognised and rotating political power among the two zones – North and South, will guarantee stability, progress and development for Nigeria.
“So, a new constitution will be a panacea to peace and stability in Nigeria. We need people’s constitution in Nigeria that we would all sit and write, and as well agree how we want to live together. We are different people. This must be recognised and that is the reality of Nigeria. We are different people and we must sit down together and discuss the facts of our union in a people federal constitution.
“So, for me, any Nigerian who appears not to recognise zoning, sharing of political positions and political powers must be living in grand delusion. Though I am not desperate about the 2023 presidency and YCE is not a political party, the South must produce the president in 2023 for peace and stability of this nation. Then, the three zones in the South will sort it out among themselves who they will present.
Southern and Middle Belt Leaders’ Forum (SMBLF), had at a meeting on Thursday, January 13, in Abuja, also called on all political parties in Nigeria to zone their presidential tickets to the south.the southern and Middle Belt leaders also warned that any political party that does not zone its presidential ticket to the South should not expect support from the four regions that constitute the body. The meeting, held under the chairmanship of Dr Edwin Clark and attended by Afenifere acting leader, Ayo Adebanjo, Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide President General, Prof George Obiozor, Dr. Pogu Bitrus, President of the Middle Belt Forum and Senator Emmanuel Ibok Essien, National Chairman of Pan Niger Delta Forum, (PANDEF) noted that the basis of any viable democracy, especially in a diverse and complex country such as Nigeria, is fair and even sharing of power.
It noted: “The northern part of the country would have fully enjoyed the Office of the Presidency of the country for the full statutory period of eight years by 2023, hence, the presidency should rotate to the South.” They noted that the extant 1999 Constitution and structure of Nigeria are grossly flawed and lopsided, and demanded the fundamental restructuring of the country by enacting a new Constitution that would enthrone equity, fairness and justice.
Conclusively, in their analysis, the observers advised Afenifere and its usual Igbo allies, who have been failing in using terrorism led by Nnamdi Kanu as a tool to force the governing All Progressives Congress (APC) to fall for their antics of returning PDP to power, to match softly.
According to one of them, “Since 2015, Afenifere and Igbo never voted for APC, yet APC has been in power. So the governing party has no votes to lose with their threats,” adding that “these ethnic jingoists are only wasting their own time because there is no saner Northerner who wants power to remain in the North in 2023”.
