PAN Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF) has criticised the former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, over his statement on zoning of the Presidency.
Atiku, the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in 2019, had at the weekend during a meeting with a group calling him to run for President in 2023, stated that there is no provision for zoning political offices in Nigeria’s Constitution.
But the Niger Delta apex social cultural group, in a statement yesterday by its National Publicity Secretary, Ken Robinson, expressed disappointment at the statement.
PANDEF said Atiku knows that his statement was inconsistent with established and justifiable protocols and conventions, which had helped to sustain considerable understanding, peace and stability in the polity.
The statement reads: “It bears underscoring that Nigeria’s Constitution, though flawed, has ample provisions that emphasise inclusiveness, fairness and equity.”
Section 14(3) of the Constitution (as amended) provides that “the composition of the Government of the Federation or any of its agencies and the conduct of its affairs shall be carried out in such a manner as to reflect the federal character of Nigeria and the need to promote national unity, and also to command national loyalty, thereby ensuring that there shall be no predominance of persons from a few states or from a few ethnic or other sectional groups in that government or any of its agencies. The intent and purpose of this section are precise and explicit.”
It stressed that zoning and rotation of key political positions in the polity cannot be discarded in a diverse and complex society like Nigeria, particularly, under the prevailing circumstances.
PANDEF called on all political parties to zone their presidential tickets to the South, saying that the zone would not support any political party that fails to do so.
