The very moment "they" decided to dump their nonsense zoning, they opened the floor for lies. One lie they say requires a BIGGER one as coverup. GEJ let the lies continue.

We dont know what to beleive these days man. More Lies pls

Nigeria will be better without PDP! Tell your neighbours

GEJ got right! There is no better argument than this.
RIP zoning!

Those clowns will still be fooling around looking for a point to argue with a PHD holder. They will always get it wrong.

To be honest , it takes intelligence to be able to explain zoning like the way GEJ did.
All this while nobody ever thought of Kwara state or the Northwest aspect of Zoning, until now.

Better days are to come.
I believe in Nigeria!
and I believe in GEJ!

~Bluetooth:

[b]Your naivety is so frustrating. .You are here asking me what Atiku has contributed to Pdp !!! I'm surprised at your ignorance.anyways,your jonathan was inside a lecture room when Atiku and others formed Pdp.olodo ![/b]Beaf with an opportunist ? Abeg free me jo !I'd be glad if you can turn the thread to a GST class !

I might be naive about the formation of PDP but I'm certainly confused about the fact of Atiku leaving the Party in such a rush only to return when the coast is clear. Secondly, you obviously missed-out in the years of IBB's rule or miss-rule (whatever anyone might call it) to fully comprehend what exactly he is still looking for in the race. I hope people like you will sit down for a second and reason properly b4 running your mouth, or is it allowing your fingers show us your insensibility!

Saraki said it was unfortunate for the president to make the claim on Kwara, which he described as factually incorrect.
He said: “Mr. President should refer to the statement by the Kwara State PDP Chairman regarding who will fly the gubernatorial ticket of PDP in Kwara State. It would be recalled that the State Chairman, Alhaji Yusuf Ayedun, stated that the party would provide a level playing ground for all aspirants in the state.

“As a result, half a dozen candidates from across all the zones are known to have picked their expression of interests and gubernatorial forms. Thus, as we are insisting at the national level, we are also committed to due process about respecting party decisions at states and at all levels. This is what we are calling all PDP aspirants to do—to respect agreements and party decisions.

”It is therefore both unfair and unfortunate for the president to have made this factually incorrect allegation. And in any case, the distribution of political positions in Kwara State over the years, even before PDP entrenched the principle in its constitution, has been guided by fairness, equity and even spread. The first two democratically elected governors of the state were from Kwara South, followed by one from Kwara North, and two from Kwara Central.”

It is really hard to imagine that the above emanated from the brain of man who wants to be president. How shallow can people get?
His self contradicting argument can be summarised as; "in Kwara, a fair playing field means no zoning, indeed zoning was simply declared dead by the state chairman; but at the national level, the very same fair playing field means zoning and no word from anybody can change that."

The man just displayed a brain size that is less than 1% of Jonathans.

My best part
"If you look at the tradition of PDP after the zoning of the offices, if for any reason, any of them resigned, then we would go to that zone to pick. That’s why when Ogbulafor resigned, the party had to go to the South-east to pick the current chairman. When Etteh resigned as Speaker of the House of Representatives, the party had to go to the South west. The party did not just go to the south.
So, if anybody is making that argument, then, of course he can only say, then the North-west, then nobody from the North- central, or the North east, because the PDP operates a six zonal structure."

                       Zones in Nigeria
1. North East (states: Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Taraba, Yobe)

2. North West (states: Kaduna, Katsina, Kano, Kebbi, Sokoto, Jigawa, Zamfara)

3. North Central (states: Benue, Kogi, Kwara, Nasarawa, Niger, Plateau) & FCT not a state

4. South East (states: Anambra, Enugu, Imo, Abia, Ebonyi)

5. South West (states: Lagos, Ekiti, Oyo, Osun, Ondo, Ogun)

6. South South (states: Akwa Ibom, Cross River, Edo, Delta, Rivers, Bayelsa)



By my last check only Aliyu Gusau should talk about zoning

gregg2:

My best part
"If you look at the tradition of PDP after the zoning of the offices, if for any reason, any of them resigned, then we would go to that zone to pick. That’s why when Ogbulafor resigned, the party had to go to the South-east to pick the current chairman. When Etteh resigned as Speaker of the House of Representatives, the party had to go to the South west. The party did not just go to the south.
So, if anybody is making that argument, then, of course he can only say, then the North-west, then nobody from the North- central, or the North east, because the PDP operates a six zonal structure."

Zones in Nigeria
1. North East (states: Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Taraba, Yobe)

2. North West (states: Kaduna, Katsina, Kano, Kebbi, Sokoto, Jigawa, Zamfara)
3. North Central (states: Benue, Kogi, Kwara, Nasarawa, Niger, Plateau) & FCT not a state

4. South East (states: Anambra, Enugu, Imo, Abia, Ebonyi)

5. South West (states: Lagos, Ekiti, Oyo, Osun, Ondo, Ogun)

6. South South (states: Akwa Ibom, Cross River, Edo, Delta, Rivers, Bayelsa)



By my last check only Aliyu Gusau should talk about zoning

Infact ehn, make GOD bless you. i have been shouting this same thing since, that zoning already rules out atiku,ibb and saraki

As far as the const'tn of the FRN is concern, zoning is illegal by any political party. We are making gej popular. Ride on gej

hehe

IF there is Zoning ONLY people from the NW- should contest, but that wont happen because the Zoning is a lie.

Northerners use it how they want to use and interpret it. How can the SE think its between the 6 zones and the North say its between North and South. They are not even on the same Page.

so everything is a lie and Kwara states elimination of Zoning is RIDICULOUS-

I said here before now that there have been no zoning, some peeps here were asking for my head.

I said zoning was a scam and was designed to fail before it gets to the turn of the s/east's (supposed) turn.

Now that it has come from the mouth of the president, lets talk about it, i believed there was zoning until i began to find out and suspect there wasn't.

Nsiman:

As far as the const'tn of the FRN is concern, zoning is illegal by any political party. We are making gej popular. Ride on gej

Please what section of Nigerian constitution contravened the PDP zoning?

^^^^^^^^^^^^

I asked you before and you decided not to see my question, so i repeat:

[size=15pt]Dede the lecturer and legal luminary, kindly explain section 7-2C of PDP constitution. please.[/size]

na_so:

^^^^^^^^^^^^

I asked you before and you decided not to see my question, so i repeat:

[size=15pt]Dede the lecturer and legal luminary, kindly explain section 7-2C of PDP constitution. please.[/size]

Bros, your boy GEJ agreed there was a clause under PDP constitution which upholds zoning and I believed he was referring to section 7-2C of PDP constitution. GEJ should be tagged as a liar by stating that zoning should only come after sthe election Presidential candidates. GEJ is already known as a law breaker too.

Care-Taker:

I said here before now that there have been no zoning, some peeps here were asking for my head.

I said zoning was a scam and was designed to fail before it gets to the turn of the s/east's (supposed) turn.

Now that it has come from the mouth of the president, lets talk about it, i believed there was zoning until i began to find out and suspect there wasn't.

Stop this your yeye talk. . .All the zoning thing started immediately yaradua died.so when has party agreement suddenly becomes a fraud ?

na_so:

^^^^^^^^^^^^

I asked you before and you decided not to see my question, so i repeat:

[size=15pt]Dede the lecturer and legal luminary, kindly explain section 7-2C of PDP constitution. please.[/size]

Simply stated, Section 7.2.C of the PDP Constitution, which states “in pursuance of the principle of equity, justice and fairness, the party shall adhere to the policy of rotation and zoning of party and public elective offices, and it shall be enforced by the appropriate executive committee at all levels.”

I am still surprise that PDP had not kick GEJ out of the PDP for brazen anti-party activity which will in turn cancel GEJ’s candidature unless he joins another party. In fact, joining another party would not help him because party membership clause requires a certain period a person would have been a member before running for elective office.

This is the most rational, sensible, comprehensive definition of the PDP zoning policy I have seen yet.

Jonathan's argument here makes a lot of sense and envelopes all the current situations that has transpired around the issue of zoning in PDP.

I have always argued that with Abubakar Rimi or Barnabas Gemade from the North running against OBJ; OR Rochas Okorocha running against Yar'adua and yet PDP recognises the results of these guys from the supposed wrong zones, PDP will have some more explaining of what their so called zoning meant. At that point I suggested the only thing that would make sense is that PDP has been zoning results before election and then conduct a charade election to endorse that earlier result.

But Jonathan's new argument answers this question in that zoning is only after the executive leader has emerged. Then other offices get zone. This line of argument makes a lot of sense because nobody can zone what they do not have.

Because If Atiku claims that PDP can zone the office of President before election. That will simply mean they have also zoned every other office from Senate President to Speaker. What if they zone Senate President to North Central and PDP fails to produce any senator from North central? This simply means zoning or federal character or power sharing or whatever you call it can only happen after elections.

I support President Jonathan on this one. Thumbs up to whoever is the spin doctor who came up with this argument.

@dede1

Some say , the zoning issue was a gentleman agreement, while some others quote section 7.2(c). I want to save my self  the stress of analysing this section. A law school student can stand as GEJ's lawyer and floor even respected SANs when this section is dissected in court.

From the section of the constitution, first the enforcement of this rule has to be by the party exco at all levels. so a few questions:

1. Does the PDP practice this section as stated in the constitution at all levels? state, LG,senate or is it just for the presidency alone?

2. Why did the PDP exco sell forms to  candidates from the north in 2003 and why did we have more southern candidates picking up forms  in 2007 and why did we not hear this zoning noise from the north then?

3. What is the duration each zone can enjoy in office, must it be 8 years?

4. Since UMYA  is from the north west, then why has the north not restircted it to canidates from the northwest. why do we have Atiku,ibb and saraki who are from North east and north central respectively?

mikeansy:

This is the most rational, sensible, comprehensive definition of the PDP zoning policy I have seen yet.

Jonathan's argument here makes a lot of sense and envelopes all the current situations that has transpired around the issue of zoning in PDP.

I have always argued that with Abubakar Rimi or Barnabas Gemade from the North running against OBJ; OR Rochas Okorocha running against Yar'adua and yet PDP recognises the results of these guys from the supposed wrong zones, PDP will have some more explaining of what their so called zoning meant. At that point I suggested the only thing that would make sense is that PDP has been zoning results before election and then conduct a charade election to endorse that earlier result.

But Jonathan's new argument answers this question in that zoning is only after the executive leader has emerged. Then other offices get zone. This line of argument makes a lot of sense because nobody can zone what they do not have.

Because If Atiku claims that PDP can zone the office of President before election. That will simply mean they have also zoned every other office from Senate President to Speaker. What if they zone Senate President to North Central and PDP fails to produce any senator from North central? This simply means zoning or federal character or power sharing or whatever you call it can only happen after elections.

I support President Jonathan on this one. Thumbs up to whoever is the spin doctor who came up with this argument.

I agree with you. One of the lessons I took off his explanation is that if we assume that the PDP zoned the president BEFORE winning the presidential elections, it also follows that PDP will never conduct a free and fair elections as long as a Nigerian president is from PDP. I know that PDP is a rogue party, but c'mon now!  Even armed robbers can't be sure that their next robbery operation will be successful.  
So, indeed, you can't zone what you don't have.

I'm still studying his explanation on "rotation of the opportunity" to bear the PDP flag in the presidential elections.

mikeansy:

This line of argument makes a lot of sense because nobody can zone what they do not have.

This statement from Jonthan is just an after thought.

So Jonathan means he was a cadet member of PDP when the North and powers that be in Nigeria came togther and Zoned the presidency to OBJ (South west) in 1999 for 8 yrs even before election was conducted?

I cant stop laffing at his cheap lies . . . . . . .

Where was Joe when PDP was telling Nigerians of how they have conducted elections in advance for the 60 yrs and thus, will rule for that long? ( Is that not a mild way of saying we have the presidency for the next 60 yrs?). The dude knows the truth jare . . . . . . .

Atiku and co had every chance to campaign for zoning to be written into the Nigerian constitution or at least the electoral act but they never did.
If zoning was the only way we could do politics and if their intentions were genuine why did Atiku, ACF etc not campaign for it to be included in the constitution? why

Who says the same ACF that is all too interested in PDP private affairs in 2011 will not encourage all of their indigenes to vote another of their candidate on another platform in 2015 and 2019

This is the best argument that makes sense, let all who believe they are up to the job of President and can do the job give us their reasons for voting them. There are all sorts of issues to attack Jonathan on, but zoning is simply a lost argument. Atiku and his North have no locus standi on this matter.

I have been able to understand this issue of zoning for the first time, thanks to GEJ. He has proven that he is a man of tact and intelligence and not a 'mumu'. He has interpreted, in plain english, what the pdp constitution means by zoning and i believe many nigerians have accepted it. If Atiku, IBB and Saraki continue to argue over zoning, they will only disgrace themselves loose the small votes they have, as there cannot be any other logical explanation to zoning. Make dea case no b like dat of Tofa wey late Abiola use tact nd intelect ridicule oh. GEJ don win me ova.

What interests me is the question of why the "zoning" we hear about from the core North (who have threatened the nation with brimstone and fire) is so different from anything that has been seen in practise and from Jonathans explanation.

Are zonings proponents merely being really primitively tribalistic? Is it mere coincidence that Yar Adua was Fulani, therefore Fulani's see zoning as meaning, "from one Fulani to the other?" IBB is half Fulani, Saraki is Fulani, Gusau is Fulani, Atiku is Fulani. . . Something smells really funny.

Jonathan is giving his interpretation of the PDP constitution. . . .it is still not clear how it works in practice with claims and counter claims.

For GEJ to claim that PDP doesn't zone the presidency, we have to look at how the candidacy [/b]of Umaru + GEJ emerged. [b]IF that candidacy emerged as a result of a zoning agreement, then his argument is completely destroyed, as it would imply that CANDIDACY can be zoned, not after the president & vice-president are elected.

However, if he can prove that they emerged as the 'best' candidates or defeated others in the primaries, then things would be different and his interpretation would be fully justified. Unfortunately, the undemocratic nature of PDP primaries often results in a candidacy being foisted on the party through all manner of manipulations.

That said, in reality GEJ is absolutely correct - no one was barred from contesting (although OBJ used the EFCC to hound governors out).

A Southerner - Rochas Okorocha contested and came second in the polls, out of a total of 12 candidates that eventually contested. By this evidence, candidacy was NOT zoned, and all interested parties contested and the 'winner' was Umaru+Goodluck.

http://www.nigeriavillagesquare.com/articles/verdict07/livecast-yaradua-emerges-as-pdp-presidential-candidate.html

If both Northern and Southern candidates were permitted to contest then, things should not be different this time around.


Goodluck 100 Zoning Proponents 0

[size=8pt][size=8pt][size=8pt][size=8pt][size=8pt][size=8pt]Aguement! Aguement!! Dem ague!! PDP! People Deceive People!!

Una go deceive una self tire![/size][/size][/size][/size][/size][/size]

Dede1:


Simply stated, Section 7.2.C of the PDP Constitution, which states “in pursuance of the principle of equity, justice and fairness, the party shall adhere to the policy of rotation and zoning of party and public elective offices, and it shall be enforced by the appropriate executive committee at all levels.”

That is factually accurate.

The bone of contention is, WHEN the zoning takes place. Jonathan has not denied zoning, he has simply stated it happens AFTER the presidential/governorship/chairmanship elections have been decided.

His opponents say the opposite, that zoning is decided before the elections. However the facts do not support this assertion.

The only 'counter' the zoning proponents can come up with is this:

What decision has the National Executive Committee of the PDP made on zoning? If the NEC has zoned the presidency BEFORE the election takes place, then they can have a case - I see no evidence of such a decision by the NEC.

On that basis, GEJ is completely correct in his assertion as the evidence from past PDP primaries supports it.

Nsiman:

As far as the const'tn of the FRN is concern, zoning is illegal by any political party. We are making gej popular. Ride on gej

Zoning cannot be illegal while federal character is in the Nigerian constitution
Infact the PDP zoning and constitutional federal character are blood brothers

GEJ has gotten the PDP ticket with that one statement, Compared to him,most of his foes in PDP are intellectual lightweights

If not for the principles of zoning, how did GEJ emerge as VP to Yar adua? There was absolutely nothing in GEJ resume that set him apart from others. It is only in country populated by fools will determine a leader because couples of mining outfits were situated at the would-be leader place of birth.

Who says there is no zoning in pdp. What is Mr. President talkn bout. If he said a president must emerge b4 zoning takes place, how come 2015 presidency of pdp was zoned to the east. I dont want to evn discuss this issue. All am about nw is 4 Mr. President to declare a state of emergency in abia state.

Dede1:

If not for the principles of zoning, how did GEJ emerge as VP to Yar adua? There was absolutely nothing in GEJ resume that set him apart from others. It is only in country populated by fools will determine a leader because couples of mining outfits were situated at the would-be leader place of birth. 

Again, this is neither here nor there. The only thing you can claim is that a candidacy for presidency must include a Northern and Southern component. The evidence from the 2006 primaries do not indicate that a specific order of North-president South-vice-president must be maintained.

In any case, GEJ's deputy is a northerner, so in that respect, GEJ has complied the zoning principles of the PDP.

sbeezy8:

hes telling the truth.
nice one.
I like the Saraki part- that guy na ode.
The fact of the matter is that PDP north see zoning as ONLY between north and South and not between the 6 zones! - which is a lie because northerners contested against obj after 1 term, when yaradua contested many ss and se people contested against him.
odili is talking of zoning now because he wants to be VP but he contested against yaradua

Odili never contested against Yaradua
The Odili issue actually convinced me the presidency was zoned to the North
Odili and Duke started their campaign very early - colourful and vibrant
all these while, Yaradua was discussing with ABU to go back to lecturing
Suddenly rumours started that Yaradua would become the president
He was the last person to collect his nomination form

Yet the most visible candidates (Odili and Duke) withdrew for him
Odili was expected, but people felt that he would be difficult for Yaradua to control
Note that Rivers delegates were the only ones that stayed all through the night of the primary
They expected Yaradua to announce Odili as his running mate