PDP Convention: South-West May Produce National Chairman

According to a media report, the Peoples Democratic Party is set to zone its national chairmanship position to the South-West.

As recommended in the leaked document of the party’s 44-member National Convention Committee on Zoning, headed by the Enugu State Governor, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, the position of the party’s chairman is zoned to the South-West, while the committee recommended the position of secretary for the North.

The main consideration as contained in the report is that the zone has not produced the party’s national chairman since inception.

In agreeing on the South-West, members considered the past distribution pattern of the geopolitical zones that produced chairmen and came to the conclusion that the South-West deserved to get the slot.

Apart from the past distribution pattern, members were said to have noted that before the emergence of Uche Secondus as the national chairman, no fewer than 12 members from the South-West aspired to lead the party before it was taken to the South-South.

The North-Central has produced five past chairmen in persons of Chief Solomon Lar, Barnabas Gemade, Audu Ogbeh, Ahmadu Ali, and Kawu Baraje; while the North-East has produced three chairmen in persons of Dr. Bamanga Tukur, Dr. Adamu Muazu, and Senator Ali Modu Sheriff.

The North-West produced two – Dr. Haliru Bello and Senator Ahmed Makarfi; the South East produced two – Vincent Ogbulafor and Okwesilieze Nwodo; while the South-South produced Secondus both as acting and as substantive chairman.

“It is now clearly seen that the national chairmanship position has stayed long in the North, and particularly dominant in the North-Central. The South-West had never been given the opportunity.

“It is was an issue generally acknowledged that the national chairmanship was aspired by no fewer than 12 aspirants from South-West before the twist that took it to the South-South,” the document read.