THE LOOMING DANGER: Micro Zoning!

By: Mike Odeh Akatu James.

Whilst the All Progressive Congress (APC) is busy enriching its financial war chest against the backdrop of the 2019 General Elections, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) is bogged down in an unnecessary quagmire called Micro Zoning .

After the the defeat of 2015, the PDP set up a delegation that recommended that all positions must be contested for in primary elections and that these positions be zoned between the North and the South.

Whilst the Committee bequeathed the North with the Presidency, the South got the powerful position of the Chairman of the Party.

However, many top politicians from the South are openly calling for a distortion of this zoning arrangement prelude to the 2017 PDP National Elective Convention.

Those calling for the change are advocating that the PDP further narrow its zoning arrangements to their zones, states and perhaps ward. So they are plotting to impose their own candidates hiding behind contraption they called Micro zoning.

DANGERS OF MICRO ZONING.

This micro zoning arrangement can distort the party convention and even cause an unending confusion in the party.

Thus assuming the PDP micro zoned its Chairmanship position, it risks loosing many of its supporters as the result and allowing other parties to poach on its candidates.

Secondly, Micro Zoning do not portray PDP as a party with national appeal or a party with mass followers. It rather show a party this is elitist, a party that is regionally and ethnically inclined the backlash would be that regions, tribes whose candidates were excluded using micro zoning, would simply look for another party as an option.

Furthermore, if the party allows Micro Zoning of the Chairmanship position, it should be ready to allow for a stooge as the Party’s chairman and at most a very ineffective and weak chairman.

Needless to say that an open free and fair party delegates elections would knock out the possibility of installing a weak chairman.

A cursory glance at the advocates of zoning, one would discover that their average age is between 68 and 75.That itself is a letdown on the youths who form the bulk of the party’s voting strength. It also negates the much talked about generation shift.

Finally, if the party’s zoning arrangement is distorted for a particular region, it may prove deadly and lead to another defeat in 2019.

THE LOOMING DANGER: Micro Zoning!