From PDP’s Zoning Committee, Some Inside Gist

Before the PDP zooming committee meeting commenced yesterday, it was observed that Professors ABC Nwosu and Jerry Gana, had in collaboration with like minds, drafted what they purported to represent the views of the committee at the previous meeting.

This was revealed to the meeting by the Deputy Chairman of the Committee and Minority Leader of the House of Representatives, Hon Ndudi Elumelu.

However, to the rude shock of some members, Elumelu got up and wanted to present what he claimed was the draft resolution of the committee for adoption.

He was angrily shouted down by some committee members from the South. Someone would later query why Nwosu and Gana hijacked the duty and responsibility of the committee’s secretariat to summarise their contributions and went ahead to draft resolutions for them.

At this juncture, Governor Samuel Ortom took the microphone from him and started pleading with the house for calm and understanding.

Enugu State Governor, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, was obliged to make contributions and he spoke along the line of the decisions of his colleague, Ortom, on the challenges facing the PDP as opposition party as well as the expectations and opportunities for the party to seize.

Thereafter, the Taraba State Governor, Darius Ishaku, who was visibly angry, made reference to the submission of Bode George on the need for equity, fairness and justice to be reflected in all that the PDP would come out with.

But it was Senator Jonah Jang, a former Governor of Plateau State, who took strong exceptions to the attitude of his colleagues and queried the justification and morality in what they were saying.

He bluntly told everyone that what they are about to do by denying the South East Zone their God-given opportunity at this time of national distress to step in and rescue Nigeria was an act of hatred, cruel and unjust.

Ibrahim Shema, former Governor of Katsina State, was unapologetic in his submission and quoted various sections of the PDP Constitution to support his position and insistence on Rotation and Zoning.

As a former Deputy Chairman of the PDP, he counselled the committee to adopt the strategies of the past in cases like this, rotate and zone as per the PDP Constitution. He claimed that would not preclude those opposed to it from contesting, because it was their constitutional right, and by so doing, the party would have upheld its constitution.

In the midst of grumbling, Nze Ozichukwu Chukwu, whose brilliant and explosive memorandum, had been earlier circulated took the microphone and made a very moving speech that provoked an outcry at the meeting.

He challenged their minds with incidences, facts and figures while buttressing and reinforcing the submission of Governor Shema. He equally reminded all of the need for justness and sincerity. He spoke of the need to reinterpret the paper of Professors ABC Nwosu and Jerry Gana into ordinary language for them to become effective instruments for action.

How efficient will they be? To whose benefits? He queried. He went further to caution the PDP not to take the “sensitivities and sensibilities of the masses” for granted and insisted that rotation and zoning were the pillars on which the PDP was anchored and what would happen in the event that the PDP jettisoned it and APC dusted it and embraced it.

At this point, Ortom asked him, “Please, what do you want us to do?” He responded and said, “Your Excellency, please, let us do right things right and zone the presidency to the South.”

At this juncture there was an uproar. Alhaji Sule Lamido spoke but the eruption that attended Nze Ozichukwu’s bombshell drowned his voice. To those who became quite uncomfortable and apprehensive, he cited the “need to diligently and sincerely cultivate the civilisation of dialogue.

“We overheard him telling the chairman that as a democrat, he will sign the draft resolution not as a consensus document, but as reflecting majority opinion though no voting by raising of hands took place but he heard the voice votes.

“After the meeting, we wanted to seek audience with Nze Ozichukwu for more light but he disappeared. By the time we went out looking for him, we were told that he had driven out with his driver,” a source who was at the meeting.