Chidinma Onyejiuwa...wrote· The 1999 Constitution is supreme over political party constitutions. Section one of the 1999 Constitution states its supremacy and section 131 states the qualification for election into the office of the president for which President Goodluck Jonathan is qualified. There is another question the North should answer, assuming we have a strong opposition political party that was able to produce another president from the South in 2007, what would the North have done? If there was a virile opposition political party that produced the president from the North in 2003, would North have rejected their son under the guise of zoning in the PDP and allowed President Olusegun Obasanjo to continue in office? I think we are only talking of zoning because there is no strong opposition political party. In 2011, When the debate was on whether President Goodluck Jonathan should contest the 2011 presidential election or not, former President Olusegun Obasanjo on the Voice of America said, “There is no arrangement that precludes any Nigerian from contesting or becoming the president of Nigeria”. Adamu Ciroma, a member of Northerner Political Leaders’ Forum (NPLF) said, “The time allocated to the North is eight years, which is equivalent to the time allocated to the South for which Obasanjo served. Umaru Musa Yar’Adua died unfortunately. His death has not killed the policy of zoning and rotation. Yet, Ciroma was at one time or the other a public servant who swore to uphold the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Oh, well, folks, did I tell you that he was a member of a one time much hyped Kaduna Mafias? But, gone are the days when the so-called Kaduna Mafias would sweep our Constitution under the carpet. On our Constitution we stand, folks! There are many questions regarding the policy which the North wanted President Goodluck Jonathan to respect. First, if the PDP zoned the presidency to the South for eight years, 1999-2007, why did PDP members from the North contest against President Olusegun Obasanjo in the PDP presidential primaries in 2003? In the 2003 PDP presidential primaries, President Olusegun Obasanjo became the PDP flag bearer having scored 2,642 votes. Late Alhaji Abubakar Rimi came second by scoring 159 votes while Chief Barnabas Gemade came third by scoring 17 votes. Now, assuming late Alhaji Abubakar Rimi scored the highest votes say 3000 against the 2,642 votes which President Olusegun Obasanjo scored, would the North have allowed President Olusegun Obasanjo to get the PDP presidential ticket to contest 2003 presidential election when their own son won the PDP primaries? If the presidency was zoned to the South for eight years, no Northerner supposed to have contested against President Olusegun Obasanjo in PDP primaries.
Posted on: Sat, 15 Nov 2014 20:09:00 +0000
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