Vanguard
By Victor Ahiuma-Young
Minister of Labour and Employment, and former Governor of Anambra State, Senator Chris Nwabueze Ngige, in this interview spoke on the raging debate over rotation and zoning of offices ahead of the 2023 presidential poll.
Ngige, who is one of the founding fathers of the ruling All Progressive Congress, APC, among others, also spoke on insinuations that the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, plans to field a northern presidential candidate to beat APC at the poll, and why South-East should produce President Buhari’s successor.
What is your take on the raging debate over power rotation and zoning?
The issue of the rotation of the prime offices in the land, even though it is not expressly written in the constitution of our party, APC, is by implication written in the 1999 constitution of Nigeria. First, I take you to Section 14 (3) of the constitution, which talks about the composition of Government at the national level, states and even local governments in such a way that there should be no element or perception of domination by any single tribe or group of persons that come from one ethnic nationality and in such a way that governments at any level is seen to have not been national, to engender confidence and patriotism. That is what the constitution says. So, the wise men that did the 1979 constitution and 1999 constitution, took this into account and all the constitutional conferences and legislative bodies of the country, whether national, state and even local government legislative councils, adopted it. That is why the constitution formed the basis of government at these three levels.
So, in effect, we all agree, flowing from that constitution that government at any level, the legislature, the executive and even to an extent, the judiciary, should reflect national spread. No particular group should dominate the other. That is also why if they are making appointments in the judiciary, zoning comes in.
Does the Federal Character principle cover political parties?
Flowing from this, the political parties adopted it when they were considering those who will govern their parties. That is why when you have a chairman you have a Deputy Chairman, North and Deputy Chairman, South. It is in the constitution of both PDP and APC. It is in the constitution of most political parties.
That is also why you have zonal chairmen for the South-East, South-South, South-West, North-East, North-West, and North-Central.
That is also why when you have the Chairman comes from the South you have the Secretary coming from the North. You also have the Deputy Chairman coming from the North. In some places, they have two deputy chairmen for North and South.
So, all these put in a holistic basket of power, shows you that it is recognised that because of our diversity, we need to have a platform for unity and diversity.
In the same way, when the chairman of any political party is from the Southern part of Nigeria effort is made for the presidential standard-bearer to come from the North. That is why also there is a deliberate attempt when a President from the South has governed for eight years, for power to shift to the North and when it is in the North, it moves to the South. So, there is an agreement, though not written, for this rotation to take place.
Who are those involved in this agreement?
It is an unwritten agreement or convention among all politicians and political parties in Nigeria. Anybody who is telling you that there is no such convention, norm or tradition is a liar.
Luckily for me, I have been old enough in this country to witness the Second Republic when this presidential system of government was born. It is also in that spirit that you see a presidential candidate from the South pickinga running mate from the North and vice versa.
What is the essence of power rotation?
There must be balancing or equilibrium for the nation to move forward. The constitution does not contain everything. In this constitution, it is not written like that, but there are extrapolations and inferences made in that constitution.
I was a foundation member of PDP and when we formed the PDP, it was agreed that the presidency should go to the South. Somebody like Abubakar Rimi of blessed memory said no, that he must contest. I remember Chief Audu Ogbeh, Chief Sunday Awoniyi, Chief Solomon Lar and others, taking Rimi to a corner of the room in Professor Jerry Gana’s house but Rimi still insisted on running. Sunday Awoniyi who we all loved, started crying. Awoniyi burst into tears, saying this was not what the founding fathers of Nigeria wanted. We were new politicians then. I and Prof. ABC Nwosu carried Alex Ekwueme’s bag to the meeting. So, we were living witnesses to this.
I am also a living witness to the fact that because of that, Abubakar Rimi went and filed expression of interest and was disqualified. He came to Jos and insisted on running but before the casting of votes, he went round the field to announce his withdrawal from the race and the turf was left for Ekwueme who relinquished the chairmanship of the steering committee of PDP to vie for the Presidency. Solomon Lar, a Northerner was permitted to take over the chairmanship of the PDP because all the presidential aspirants were from the South. They include Ekwueme, Obasanjo, Nwobodo, Gamaliel Onosode and the former Minister of Labour under Babangida.
And in our neighbouring APP, everyone collapsed for a Southern candidate. We had Ogbonnaya Onu. We had Olu Falae. We had the billionaire from Ibadan, Chief Harry Akande. They all slugged it out there. Shinkafi and others stepped down. So, it is not novel in Nigerian political history that you rotate or shift power. It is done to make for stability, unity, equity and progress of the country.
If anybody, coming to 2023, says that there is no rotation or zoning that person is being economical with the truth.
You were one of the founders of APC. Does rotation of power exist in APC?
We started the discussion even before I went to Senate. We started the discussion for the formation of APC between ACN and CPC. After the election, ANPP joined us. Then, I now brought APGA with Okorocha. Some people falsified issues to say that Okorocha brought APC to the South-East. It is not true. I and Ogbonnaya Onu were the fathers of APC in the South-East. I specifically brought in Okorocha, Annie Okonkwo and Osita Izunaso. They are the three leading people we brought into the formation committee. I introduced them during the first meeting at Tom Ikimi’s house as APGA faction, with Ikimi presiding. So, there is nothing there that will be told me as a story.
After formation, we put in a 32-man Interim Management Committee, serving like they are all working committee members. They were drawn from ACN; we were the senior partners coming with six governors. ANPP had three governors, CPC with one governor, APGA with one governor and then, DPP with one Senator and some House of Representatives members. I was the secretary at our first convention and I took all the minutes. We had an agreement that our standard-bearer was coming from the North and after North, it would come down to the South. So, those who are talking today were not there when this agreement was made. Was it written down and signed by politicians from both sides, no. But we had minutes of the meeting. They are there. It was agreed that it would be a movement between North and South.
As we were doing the convention, we…
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