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 Daily
Independent Online.
* Monday, July 05, 2004.
2007 Controversy: Presidency can go to
any zone - IBB
• It
is not zoned to the North, says Danmusa
•
South East PDP leaders insist on producing President
By
Sukuji Bakoji (Kaduna),
Chukwudi
Achife
(Enugu),
Ben Duru (Owerri),
Chesa
Chesa (Abuja) and
Bassey
Inyang (Calabar)
A
week after President Olusegun Obasanjo declared that the Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP) has not zoned its Presidential slot to any region,
top contender Ibrahim Babangida at the weekend added his voice with an
admission that the race is open to any Nigerian.
Yet to
formally kick off his campaign, he said zoning is an internal thing
within the party but that there are no hard and fast rules. He blamed the
media for turning it into a controversy, saying no one should lose sleep
over the matter.
And
contrary to the notion that the PDP has zoned the Presidency to the
North, a member of its board of trustees, Iro Abubakar Danmusa, says the
party has not zoned the Presidency to any part of the country.
Danmusa,
former PDP Deputy National Chairman (North) denied the speculation, asserting that the
party has not reviewed the zoning formula agreed in 1998, let alone
zoning the 2007 Presidency to the North.
Briefing
newsmen at the weekend in Kaduna, he stated that the zoning arrangement
has remained a matter of conjecture hence “both the President and the PDP
national secretary were right” in saying that the Presidency has not been
zoned.
Regardless,
leaders of the PDP in the
South East have declared their resolve to ensure that the next President
emerges from the region.
PDP
National Vice Chairman (South East) Fidelis Ozichukwu Chukwu made the point in Enugu during a
tour of the party national leadership to the zone at the weekend,
insisting that the Igbo have a stake in the 2007 Presidency.
He
said the zone also supports the position of the national leadership that
its members who aspire to contest the 2007 Presidency should not start
their campaigns now as it is capable of distracting the members from
strengthening the party and providing the dividends of democracy to the
people.
However,
Chukwu reiterated that the South East has a stake in the Presidency.
“The
South East Zone of our great party is not indifferent to the controversy
and agitation surrounding the 2007 Presidency and the party’s zoning or
rotation arrangement. We
wish to reiterate that we, as a zone, have a stake in the Presidency of
our country and we justifiably believe that the South East can
responsibly lay claim to the Presidency in 2007,” he declared.
Babangida
who made his comments in Abuja when he paid a condolence visit to former
Deputy Senate President Haruna Abubakar, on the death of his younger
sister, Hajia Aishatu, stressed that the office of the President should
remain open to all Nigerians.
“That
office belongs to all Nigerians. Any Nigerian who aspires to get into
that office has the right to do so. Yes, every Nigerian has a right to
aspire to be the President of this country. So, the Nigerian is a
platform for the Presidency. Anyone who wants to contest should do so”,
he said.
He
added: “I think the problem is created by the media. There are no hard
and fast rules about it. It is an internal thing within political
parties. It is not something that anybody should lose sleep about”.
Asked
if there is anything he would like to change to get the country economy
on a faster track, Babangida replied: “The economy is doing fine at the
moment. Every country has its own economic problems but you put in place
policies. Then you should make them work. The policies on ground now are
good enough. Nigeria’s problems are Nigerians’ problems; every body has a
stake in this country”.
Meanwhile,
posters of Babangida have flooded Owerri in what observers believe to be
a strong message for 2007.
The
posters describe the man who annulled the June 12, 1993 Presidential elections, believed
to have been won by late business mogul and publisher Moshood Abiola, as
“the friend of the Igbo”.
This
has not gone down well with those pushing for a President of Igbo
extraction, whose own posters declare that “it is Igbo President or
nothing”.
It was
gathered that the promoters of “IBB Vision 2007” paid huge sums of money
to hire supporters from the rural areas and be conveyed to and from
Owerri in buses.
Several
of his loyalists surrounded the Imo Concord Hotel on Saturday, drumming
and dancing with the banners flying. Those who had other identities of
the man also wore them.
Babangida’s
opponents were upset. They tore some of the posters, others painted
effigies with them.
One of
them vowed to ensure that all the posters are removed before dawn,
insisting: “It is not just right for us to be talking about an Igbo
President and have so-called brothers who are drumming up their support
for a man from another zone”.
In
Cross River State, Project 2007, one of the groups campaigning for
Babangida says it has begun
to mobilise the electorate at the grassroots.
It has
been inaugurated in all the three senatorial districts of the state as a
first step towards realising the objective.
Project
2007 state Chairman Nte Basiekanem, while inaugurating the campaign group
in Ogoja, announced that the group has started to sensitise the
grassroots to the “total support” for Babangida.
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