By Tonye Barcanista

1999: PDP Zoned To South (Southwest most preferred)
At the formation of PDP in 1998, Chief (Dr) Alex Ekweme, a former Vice President in the second republic, was seen as the frontline candidate to clinch the presidential nomination of PDP in the January 1999 election. Though the party ceded the ticket to the south, majority of its leaders preferred a candidate from the southwest in order to appease the Yoruba nation for the injustice meted on late Chief MKO Abiola, and this decision threw up Chief Olusegun Obasanjo from Ogun state as candidate.

2003: PDP's Ticket Was Thrown Open
Contrary to popular saying, the 2003 presidential candidatcy of PDP was neither zoned to the Southwest nor any part of the south. In fact, the ticket was contested by President Olusegun Obasanjo from the Southwest, Chief Alexander Ekweme from the Southeast, Chief Barnabas Gemade from the Northcentral (Benue state) and the late Abubakar Rimi from Kano state of Northwest. Alhaji Atiku Abubakar from the northeast (Adamawa) was almost a contestants until an appeal to him against such by President Obasanjo, who at that time was his deputy.

2007: PDP Zoned Ticket To North
Penultimate to the primary election of December 2006 to pick the Presidential candidate of PDP, stakeholders in the party across the country entered into gentleman agreement for power rotation to the north in 2007 after Obasanjo's second term. The party further "zoned" the Presidential ticket to the north. That decision buried the Presidential ambitions of frontline Southerners such as Governors Peter Odili (Rivers), Chimaroke Nnamani (Enugu), Donald Duke (Cross river) and Victor Attah (Akwa Ibom). Governor Umaru Musa Yar'adua of Katsina state backed by President Obasanjo and PDP Governors, had no major opposition. Although Owelle Anayo Rochas Okorocha from Imo state contested at the primary, a former National Security Adviser, Alhaji Aliyu Gusau, was the main opponent of Yar'adua, who won with ease.

2011: No Zoning Was Announced, Ticket Thrown Open
Although President Goodluck Jonathan, who succeeded Musa Yar'adua upon his demise, was interested in the Presidential ticket of PDP, the party did not make any pronouncement to zone its ticket to the South.

Instead, interested aspirants like Governor Bukola Saraki (Kwara), Gen Ibrahim Babangida (Niger), General Aliyu Gusau (Zamfara), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar (Adamawa), Mrs Sarah Jubril and President Goodluck Jonathan (Bayelsa), were playing their cards to outsmart each other.

Penultimate to that primary, a powerful northern group, Northern Political Leaders Forum, NPLF, led by Mallam Adamu Ciroma, brought the 4 leading northern candidates, namely; Alhaji Abubakar, General Gusau, General Babangida and Governor Saraki, together and made them understand the need to put up a consensus northern candidate to challenge President Jonathan for the PDP ticket at the primary. The group which set up a committee to screen all 4 northern aspirants, eventually named Alhaji Abubakar as the northern consensus candidate for the PDP. The committee's decision was welcomed by Generals Ibrahim Babangida, General Aliyu Gusau and Governor Bukola Saraki; backed Atiku Abubakar into the PDP primary.

The Primary election was eventually contested by President Goodluck Jonathan (Bayelsa/Southsouth), Alhaji Abubakar (Adamawa/Northeast) and Sarah Jubril (also from the north). President Jonathan won the primary election by wide margin despite the political schemings.

2015: PDP Zoned To South (Southsouth)
The primary election of December 2014 to determine the candidate of the party in 2015 was only the third time the party will microzone its ticket to a particular zone when it adopted President Goodluck Jonathan (Southsouth) as consensus candidate, and precluded every other aspirants from obtaining nomination form nor contesting.

2019: PDP Zoned Ticket To North
Prior to the October 2018 Presidential election that threw up Alhaji Atiku Abubakar as the candidate of PDP for the 2019 contest, the party announced zoning of the office to aspirants from the north, and precluded the south from seeking its ticket. In line with that, all the aspirants for the ticket of the party were northerners. They include, Senator Bukola Saraki (Kwara), Senator Ahmed Makarfi (Kaduna), Senator Datti Baba Ahmed (Kaduna), Former Governor Sule Lamido (Jigawa), Governors Aminu Tambuwal (Sokoto) and Ibrahim Dankwambo (Gombe), former Governor Attahiru Bafarawa (Sokoto) and eventual winner Atiku Abubakar (Adamawa).

From the above, it is clear that the four times PDP zoned its presidential ticket, it was two apiece for the south (1999 and 2015) and north (2007 and 2019). The tickets of 2003, which was won by President Olusegun Obasanjo (from Ogun) was contested by two southerners (Obasanjo and Ekweme) and two northerners (Barnabas Gemade and Aliyu Gusau). In similar fashion, the 2011 nomination that was won by President Jonathan was contested by two northerners (Atiku Abubakar and Sarah Jubril) and one southerner (Goodluck Jonathan).

Therefore, as we prepare for the 2023 election, what is expected of the PDP is either to return the zoning of the party's presidential ticket to the south OR leave it an open contest among interested aspirants.

Written by Tonye Barcanista Inioribo

MODIFIED

The next should also be thrown open too!

It will be very interesting!

Bellfun:
The next should also be thrown open too!

It will be very interesting!

Exactly! Southern aspirants emerged candidates the two times it was thrown open

By Tonye Barcanista

1999: PDP Zoned To South (Southwest most preferred)
At the formation of PDP in 1998, Chief (Dr) Alex Ekweme, a former Vice President in the second republic, was seen as the frontline candidate to clinch the presidential nomination of PDP in the January 1999 election. But the party ceded the ticket to the southwest in order to appease the Yoruba nation for the injustice meted on late Chief MKO Abiola, and this decision threw up Chief Olusegun Obasanjo from Ogun state as candidate.

Stop spreading falsehood. PDP never zoned its ticket to south west in 1999. The ticket was zoned to the south and all interested southerners like Obasanjo from south west, Alex Ekwueme from south east and Graham Douglas from south south contested for the ticket and Obasanjo won.

In 2003, the ticket was thrown open and Obasanjo and Ekwueme again contested for the ticket. It was a very keen contest despite the fact that Obasanjo was the incumbent president. Even after the result was announced, Alex Ekwueme refused to concede defeat and congratulate the winner. Instead, he called the PDP primary election a charade on national television.

TonyeBarcanista:

Exactly! Southern aspirants emerged candidates the two times it was thrown open

Who are the likely 'marketable' candidates from the South?... Especially from PDP strongholds of South-South and South-East?

seunmsg:
False. PDP never zoned its ticket to south west in 1999.

You just want to say something sha... It is open secret that Ekweme's ambition in 1999 was stalled by the need to placate the SW.

Bellfun:


Who are the likely 'marketable' candidates from the South?... Especially from PDP strongholds of South-South and South-East?

The trio of Governor Nyesom Wike, Governor Ifeanyi Okowa and Chief Ayim Pius Ayim have what it takes to win the Presidency.

TonyeBarcanista:

You just want to say something sha... It is open secret that Ekweme's ambition in 1999 was stalled by the need to placate the SW.

We need to put issues in proper and accurate perspective for posterity sake. We won’t allow folks like you to rewrite a very recent history for us. We should be discussing what actually happened (the reality) and not what is an open secret (false beer parlor gossip).

Alex Ekwueme contested the PDP primary that was held at the Jos township stadium in December 1998. If he had won, he would have been the flag bearer of PDP.

He again contested for the ticket in 2003 despite the fact that Obasanjo was already an incumbent president and then refused to concede defeat after the result was announced. There was never a time that PDP microzoned its ticket to the south west. Stop the lies.

seunmsg:


You need to put issues in proper and accurate perspective for posterity sake. Alex Ekwueme contested the PDP primary that was held in Jos. He again contested for the ticket in 2003 despite the fact that Obasanjo was already an incumbent president and then refused to concede after the result was announced. There was never a time that PDP microzoned its ticket to the south west.

The ticket of 1999 was microzoned to SW... It was the reason Obasanjo was drafted into fge race even when he was a party outsider.

2003 was not zoned to anywhere... Obasanjo, Ekweme, Abubakar Rimi (Kano) and Barnabas Gemade (Benue) contested.

TonyeBarcanista:

The ticket of 1999 was microzoned to SW... It was the reason Obasanjo was drafted into fge race even when he was a party outsider.

2003 was not zoned to anywhere... Obasanjo, Ekweme, Abubakar Rimi (Kano) and Barnabas Gemade (Benue) contested.

So, why did people like Ekwueme and Graham Douglas contested the primary? What would have happened if Ekwueme had won the primary?

Anyway, most reasonable Nigerians who are not paid to misinform others know the truth so no point arguing against the agenda you’re trying to push. You’re free to push whatever narrative that pays your bills so no qualm. However, the fact that PDP did not microzone its ticket to the south west is a fact of history that can’t be changed.

TonyeBarcanista:

You just want to say something sha... It is open secret that Ekweme's ambition in 1999 was stalled by the need to placate the SW.

Are you sure you followed the politics of 1999?

If the ticket was micro-zoned to the SW then who are those that gave Ekwueme the 21% votes he had in the primaries?

OBJ was supported majorly by the Northerners and most especially the military guys. It’s the likes of Atiku, Jerry Gana, Yahaya Kwande, and most of the Northern Governor elects that supported OBJ in that primaries.

If you want to be an analyst, you should be fair and truthful in your assertions and you need to retract the statement that the PDP generally micro-zoned it to the SW.

If you had said the Northerners in PDP micro zoned it to the SW, that is still a valid statement but don’t generalize it.

seunmsg:


So, why did people like Ekwueme and Graham Douglas contested the primary? What would have happened if Ekwueme had won the primary?

Anyway, most reasonable Nigerians who are not paid to misinform others know the truth so no point arguing against the agenda you’re trying to push. You’re free to push whatever narrative that pays your bills so no qualm. The fact that PDP did not microzone its ticket to the south west is a fact of history that can’t be changed.

1999 was 22 years ago, which isn't a distant time. I asked you how Obasanjo was drafted into the Presidential race even when he never showed single interest, you couldn't respond. If not for zoning to SW, Dr Ekweme would have emerged!

If you aren't informed about history, kindly ask your elders.

TonyeBarcanista:

1999 was 22 years ago, which isn't a distant time. I asked you how Obasanjo was drafted into the Presidential race even when he never showed single interest, you couldn't respond. If not for zoning to SW, Dr Ekweme would have emerged!

If you aren't informed about history, kindly ask your elders.

Below is an extract from an interview granted by Okwosiliese Nwodo, the pioneer National Secretary of PDP.

Your party, the PDP, you served as its first secretary and chief Solomon Lar served as its first chairman. It’s a very large family now but how did all that come about, the arrangement of zoning offices, without elections?

When we were coming to form the PDP, we had a steering committee. That committee was chaired by Alex Ekwueme and Jerry Gana was our secretary. And as you know this was as a result of the G-18 which later became G-34 and so on.
And when we wanted to put it together as a political party, and register it, our biggest problem at the time, was that we wanted to find a way of shifting power to the south.

So we debated this power shift for a long time. And the night we agreed, it was in Jerry Gana’s house and Jerry Gana at that time, like I said was the secretary. And based on the new realities that we wanted to put in place, we had to zone the chairmanship of the party to the North and the Secretary’s slot to the South.

The North was to produce the Chairman so that we can have a southern President, and the Secretary also from the South. Alex Ekwueme had to relinquish being chairman. The North Central zone where the chairman was to come from picked Solomon.

The Secretary came to the South, and Jerry Gana had to relinquish his secretary’s post. And then it was zoned to the South East and that was how I became the chairman. This was how we zoned all the other post.That was what happened at that time. But you know that immediately after the states convention, and the governorship elections, we now had our national convention.

Before that convention and while you people were into this your zoning arrangement, the story we heard was that the military had made up its mind on what to do and where the Presidency would go, and that whatever the civilians were doing was just a dramatization of a script which the military had written.

When we agreed on that zoning arrangement, Lawal Kaita, former Governor of Kaduna State, got up and said, “this zoning is going to be capped. We are zoning the presidential ticket of this party to Alex Ekwueme†.

But Alex Ekwueme in his characteristic humility, got up and said, “no!, this zoning is not about Alex Ekwueme, anybody from southern Nigeria is fit to run†.

He wanted everybody from Southern Nigeria to participate and have a sense of belonging because he believed that we could not say we want to build a democratic nation and build it on such award of candidacy.

The issue of the military deciding on our behalf, which you mentioned is very important.
That was not what happened. Let me be honest with you and you can go anywhere and find this out.

What happened was that we were fighting the Abacha regime. And Abacha still wanted to succeed himself as a civilian President. Most of us were not happy.


Now to your Jos Convention: What made to loyalty to Ekwueme very strong?

So many things and you know Dr. Ekwueme

NO, sorry, that question was wrongly put. The first question should be why did you not go with the Awoniyi people when they were moving to support Obasanjo because we heard of some of the things which happened?

This was what happened. I was seriously lobbied. I think we can say this now and I don’t think anybody would be hurt.
Obasanjo actually sent Atiku Abubakar and Joe Igwe, the owner of Bolingo Hotel – where we were running our office – to come and talk to me to persuade me.
I told them it would not work and that I would not shift loyalty.
Number one, I told them, that I am a beneficiary of the zoning arrangement, that if we had not succeeded with the zoning, I may not have been national secretary.

I also told them that the will of the party at that time when we were doing the zoning arrangement was that Alex Ekwueme should be the sole candidate of the party but that if not for his nationalistic view and what can now be described as his political naivety, we would have been through with that since 1998.

So, I felt that turning my back on him at that time would be a sell out to our covenant irrespective of whatever appeared likely to happen at the convention and I saw all the gathering storm just before and during the convention.
I saw very strategic supporters, especially from the north, leaving Ekwueme’s campaign and moving to Obasanjo.
Secondly – and from a parochial point of view – I also felt that if Alex had engineered the formation of PDP and the South East, also was entitled to southern president, that my abandoning Ekwueme would be a sell out to the aspiration of my own people, so I thought that was not a wise thing to do at that time.

I was in Jos and I know that at some point some offers were made to you by the Obasanjo campaign group just so you can dump Ekwueme; what sort of offers were these?
I don’t think it is right for me to mention what the offers were but you’re right, there were offers – appointive offers, monetary offers.

Was it that you were sure that Ekwueme would win?
For me it wasn’t a matter of being sure or not that Ekwueme would win.

It was on principle.

My principle was that we started this party together, we had him in mind and it would not be fair to just abandon him. It was just on principle.
Let me be honest with you, at a point during all these, I was convinced that Ekwueme was going to lose because of the way funds were being moved around and the way the delegates were being quartered in hotels and lobby them both with funds and other things before they came into the convention ground to cast their votes, I saw things moving in favour of Obasanjo at that time.

As national secretary organizing the convention, however a candidate conducts his campaign or how he lobbies delegates to vote is strictly his business. My business is simply to conduct free and fair balloting and to count the ballots.

The convention itself, some people still wonder how come it was that easy for Obasanjo to win because the counting and the pattern of voting left many in Jos township stadium that midnight through to the early hours of that Monday, bemused? Obasanjo was number 7 and the chant of Number 7, Obasanjo was something else. Was there real voting because your party PDP has demonstrated that it is capable of anything?

Yes there was real voting. The way we organized the voting process was such that once we started counting the votes in the boxes and we counted seven, it was very clear that the pattern would be the same all through – for instance if a state had 60 delegates, they would all cast their votes into the 20 ballot boxes and if that state was voting for a particular candidate, it would reflect exactly like that, like a pro-rata arrangement so every box was a replica of the others.

After the seventh box, I went to Dr. Ekwueme and told him that ‘I hope you know this pattern would continue’, he said ‘yes’.
I also told him that ‘I hope you understood what that meant’.
He again said he understood that it meant he would lose.
And I told him that whatever results we got from each box would not differ from the others.

LegendHero:


Are you sure you followed the politics of 1999?

If the ticket was micro-zoned to the SW then who are those that gave Ekwueme the 21% votes he had in the primaries?[/b] Ekweme was the leader of PDP then and almost bound to be candidate until the party stated its preference for SW.

[b]OBJ was supported majorly by the Northerners and most especially the military guys. It’s the likes of Atiku, Jerry Gana, Yahaya Kwande, and most of the Northern Governor elects that supported OBJ in that primaries.

If you want to be an analyst, you should be fair and truthful in your assertions and you need to retract the statement that the PDP generally micro-zoned it to the SW.

If you had said the Northerners in PDP micro zoned it to the SW, that is still a valid statement but don’t generalize it.

Highly incorrect... Obj was supported across the north and south. Orji Kalu played leading role and invested huge funds!

On why wasn't Ekweme precluded after the preference for SWest, the reason is simply because our democracy was not yet in place and the political class was being careful.

TonyeBarcanista:

Highly incorrect... Obj was supported across the north and south. Orji Kalu played leading role and invested huge funds!

On why wasn't Ekweme precluded after the preference for SWest, the reason is simply because our democracy was not yet in place and the political class was being careful.

What does Orji Kalu leading role has to do with micro-zoning and if he got that much influence why did Ekwueme got that percentage of the delegates from the SE?

How many delegates does Kalu himself command to hand OBJ the winning ticket? Bro see, the Northerners are the one that selected OBJ and even without a million Kalu, OBJ will emerge.

OBJ delegates had to camp in Kaduna then because Ekwueme and his supporters almost rented out the hotels in Jos back then. If Ekwueme agreed to the micro-zoning, why spend so much for the primaries?

TY Danjuma himself hosted a fundraising event for OBJ in Lagos and the main thing he hammered was that that its unity is under threat and we needed a military guy to soldify the Democracy. He even jokingly said he might consider exile if Obasanjo lose.

If you also check the pattern of 2003 presidential election primaries of PDP, you will see it’s almost the same as 1999.

Ekwueme only got 611 votes, 17% and OBJ got 76% which is not much statistically different from 1999.

If it was zoned to the SW, then how and why did Ekweme contest?

TonyeBarcanista:

The ticket of 1999 was microzoned to SW... It was the reason Obasanjo was drafted into fge race even when he was a party outsider.

2003 was not zoned to anywhere... Obasanjo, Ekweme, Abubakar Rimi (Kano) and Barnabas Gemade (Benue) contested.

LegendHero:


What does Orji Kalu leading role has to do with micro-zoning and if he got that much influence why did Ekwueme got that percentage of the delegates from the SE?

How many delegates does Kalu himself command to hand OBJ the winning ticket? Bro see, the Northerners are the one that selected OBJ and even without a million Kalu, OBJ will emerge.

OBJ delegates had to camp in Kaduna then because Ekwueme and his supporters almost rented out the hotels in Jos back then. If Ekwueme agreed to the micro-zoning, why spend so much for the primaries?

TY Danjuma himself hosted a fundraising event for OBJ in Lagos and the main thing he hammered was that that its unity is under threat and we needed a military guy to soldify the Democracy. He even jokingly said he might consider exile if Obasanjo lose.

If you also check the pattern of 2003 presidential election primaries of PDP, you will see it’s almost the same as 1999.

Ekwueme only got 611 votes, 17% and OBJ got 76% which is not much statistically different from 1999.

Let's stop this back and forth... There wees loyalists of Ekweme that weren't comfortable with the overnight preference for SW and Obasanjo, who then was a political outsider in PDP. Those aggrieved gave Ekweme the meagre votes he got despite the fact that he isn't from SW

ItsTutsi:
If it was zoned to the SW, then how and why did Ekweme contest?

TonyeBarcanista:

Highly incorrect... Obj was supported across the north and south. Orji Kalu played leading role and invested huge funds!

On why wasn't Ekweme precluded after the preference for SWest, the reason is simply because our democracy was not yet in place and the political class was being careful.

MODIFIED:
I stand corrected

seunmsg:


Below is an extract from an interview granted by Okwosiliese Nwodo, the pioneer National Secretary of PDP.

In view of this information by Nwodo, I shall appropriately modify the piece to edit the southwest to South...

I take correction and stand corrected

TonyeBarcanista:

Let's stop this back and forth... There wees loyalists of Ekweme that weren't comfortable with the overnight preference for SW and Obasanjo, who then was a political outsider in PDP. Those aggrieved gave Ekweme the meagre votes he got despite the fact that he isn't from SW

Let me ask you a queston.

Did Ekweueme agreed to the micro-zoning of the slot to the SW? Yes or No?

Please do u know the meaning of zoning!?!?! Why are you making a mockery and trying desperately to be a clown!! And at one point I foolishly thought u were a political analyst

You said it was zoned to the SW but a person from SE contested, how does that make sense or correlate?

Don't insult our sensibility by foolishly trying to rewrite history right before us!

TonyeBarcanista:

1999 was 22 years ago, which isn't a distant time. I asked you how Obasanjo was drafted into the Presidential race even when he never showed single interest, you couldn't respond. If not for zoning to SW, Dr Ekweme would have emerged!

If you aren't informed about history, kindly ask your elders.

TonyeBarcanista:

In view of this information by Nwodo, I shall appropriately modify the piece to edit the southwest to South...

I take correction and stand corrected

I just saw this your response to Seun

Nice and I commend you for this.

Have a lovely weekend.

TonyeBarcanista:

In view of this information by Nwodo, I shall appropriately modify the piece to edit the southwest to South...

I take correction and stand corrected

At least, we are getting somewhere. In addition, I’m in support of your advocacy for the ticket of PDP to be zoned to the south. Indeed, it would be a great injustice and a slap on all southerners if the ticket is zoned to the North. Southerners like Wike, Okowa, Peter Obi and Ekweremadu are more qualified to be president than Atiku, Tambuwal, Saraki and Bala Mohammed. They should all put up a fight on behalf of the south.

And what's stopping Pdp from throwing the ticket open in 2023?

seunmsg:


So, why did people like Ekwueme and Graham Douglas contested the primary? What would have happened if Ekwueme had won the primary?

Anyway, most reasonable Nigerians who are not paid to misinform others know the truth so no point arguing against the agenda you’re trying to push. You’re free to push whatever narrative that pays your bills so no qualm. However, the fact that PDP did not microzone its ticket to the south west is a fact of history that can’t be changed.

It was micro-zoned to the SW, but people like Ekwueme and Graham Douglas still ran, because their zones even had greater claims to that presidency than OBJ's. The reason being that the only Igbo man to hold he executive powers in Nigeria was Ironsi and he was there for just six months and he governed in the 1960s. Around that time, the SS had never seen the presidency.

Compare this to the fact that OBJ governed for a number of years in the 70s and Shonekan presided for a number of months in the 90s. So basically the SE and SS had greater claims for consideration than the SW in the 1999 presidential politicking.

Abubakar Rimi may have contested in the primaries also, and this was simply because it wasn't against the constitution for qualified individual to seek the presidency of Nigeria, provided you haven't done two tenures as the president.

In APP, Ogbonnaya Onu who was the candidate of the bigger party in the coalition, had to step down for the Yoruba candidate in smaller AD, because the ticket was also micro-zoned to the SW.

So basically the two major parties in that election microzoned to the SW

Who's business is that? Show it to FFK

next president must come from north...period. we own d country nd we decide who rule Nigeria...after we rule for 16yrs straight we give it to Yoruba for 8yrs den south south for 8yrs den we north will rule for another 16yrs....south east we never rule Nigeria. ..

Y

Never a dull moment with this guy

TonyeBarcanista:

In view of this information by Nwodo, I shall appropriately modify the piece to edit the southwest to South...

I take correction and stand corrected

Why would you have to open a thread when you did not have adequate and complete information on the subject in the first place?

South west be like we want presidency to be zoned to the south, but not to the region that hasn’t ruled.

North knows how to unite itself, I know the next presidential candidate from the north will come from either north east or north central, they do dz to unite themselves.

But south greed no go gree them.


They always try to play smart and clever then when it back fires they start looking for who to blame

When they go zone ticket come Nairaland Na?
We get intelligent people here that can rule Nigeria Successfully oo