Dede1:


Sir, I do not have any use for sentimental posturing as many Nigerians would like to have it. Based on the training I received from my parents and other facilities, I tend to pursue issues on constituted merits.

The only entity mentioned in Nigerian constitution with powers to sponsor a candidate for political office in Nigeria is political party. Other than Nigerian constitution which had granted express powers to political parties, I only hold judiciously to detect of the constitution of contending political parties in Nigeria. In this regards, I am at home with section 7-2c of PDP constitution as far as zoning or rotating of posts are concerned in Nigeria.

I came to this conclusion based on the fact that PDP is the only political party whose members had gray matters above their shoulders capable of removing any ambiguity on the issue of zoning or rotating political offices by entrenching such clause in its constitution. Whether it was a brain child of northern politicians to inject the idea of zoning political positions in Nigeria into PDP constitution, which I doubt very much, I do not give a hoot.

It is very ludicrous for some peeps to deny and even kick against the zoning formula of PDP and at the same time conjuring the idea of rotational of political posts within the umbrella of PDP. If GEJ runs for presidency of Nigeria against the back drop of section 7-2c of PDP constitution, all the subsequent positions thereafter must be decided based on the winner takes-all since democracy is a game of numbers.

I am lost trying to fathom why PDP constitution is a political suicide. At least, it shows sense of virtue, sanity and decorum instead of horse race GEJ and political minnows are trying very hard to introduce in PDP. It is unfortunate you failed woefully to see that GEJ is trying to introduce the latent influence of incumbency in party primaries. After GEJ tenure, it certainly will be the turn of Sambo and then followed by whosoever is Sambo’s VP.

An interesting perspective but a bit simplistic and ( with all due respect) naive in a game as complex as politics where ulterior motives and very long term permutations by power hungry folks or zones would easily torpedo such a noble disposition. The foundations of zoning, the unconstitutionality thereof, the sincerity and fidelity of the parties involved, the spirit of it and not the letter, the temptation on those who have benefitted from it to renege either by accident or design (coups, assassinations, force majeure) all need to be brought into the calculation to obtain the alchemy of reason why it should be dispensed wit.

You appear to have so much faith in the sincerety of the North WRT zoning If IBB was in GEJ's position, the man with the unending transition, would he just step aside without testing his popularity at the polls, a constitutionally assured right? Would he not invoke the party provisions that allow the man in power to seek re-nomination as long as he is constitutionally permitted? Abeg talk some as the Ghanaians would say. By now the mantra from most of the North would have been 'it is the will of Allah'. Now fatalism is not acceptable.

You might say that they rotated power to the south instead of allowing Abubakar to continue. Everyone
knows that at that time, military rule had become globally despicable and any one holding unto power militarily was on his own. Again at whose expense was power rotated to the south? It was still at the expense of the south definitely not the North. Alex Ekwueme was on a roller coaster to clinch power as Abacha had decimated most of the strong poltical juggernauts in the country by death, imprisonment or exile . It would perhaps have been a battle royale between Ekwueme and Ige/Falae. No Northern political heavy was in sight and IBB would have been so odious had he come out then. More odious than now. Those figures were all unnacceptable to him and his constituency so he played a fast one killing 4 birds with one stone.

1/ Play the south against themselves as before and deny the SE power as a continuation of the civil war.
2/Pay lip service to assuaging the SW and Nadeco on June12 and Abiola by foisting on them a candidate he believed would not rock the boat.
3/ Appear generous to the South by rotating power to them when actually the election was theirs to lose. All these three were to lead up to the season finale,
4/ Reposition and take back power to the North through himself after 8 years of the token given to the south.

Of course against his expectation OBJ rocked the both and thwarted this by foisting his own man on the North, someone IBB would not morally contest against and then
God took over and the rest is the history he is trying so had to rewrite.

I have always maintained that IMO IBB, and most of the core North, is not sincere about power rotation . If so they would have constrained Abubakar to include it in the 1999 constitution as, I gather, Abacha wanted to before his demise. Nothing would have stopped them. If so all these arguments now for or against zoning would have been moot. Ohaneze has seen through all this to come to the conclusion they reached after their consultations. Of course I know there are many fair minded Northerners. To them I apologise if they feel I have been too hard at my analysis of the Northern Power mongery. However they will agree with me that there are Northern folks who think that they own Nigeria, the way Tompolo says he owns MEND, and parcel out power to whom and when and to the tune they want. They must be stopped before they disintegrate Nigeria. This is a time they must pull back and allow Jonathan. It is the will of Allah. Ta ta

Umunne biko let us for once agree on something after the biafra war,ohaneze knows what is best for ndi igbo,Goodluck is an ijaw and like someone here rightly pointed out, ndi igbo owns nothing to ijaw,not with what they did during and after the war,not after what clark did to odili. But who should we vote for? is it the northerners? what made u think they wil return power come 2015? I didnt initially support Goodluck,but in as much as we hate to admit it,the truth is that at this point in time our best shot is Goodluck,we must start believing in ohaneze, this idea of speaking in different voices is what brought us to this situation today, nobody can claim to know what is best for ndi igbo than ohaneze,Ralph uwechue is our leader,it is bad when people say he is running a south south agenda,when we know his loyalty lies with ndigbo,unless we are saying we dont have ndi igbo in south south, remember that our people say that what an elder see while sitting down,a child cant see it even when he is standing. Udo di.

vicenzo:

Umunne biko let us for once agree on something after the biafra war,ohaneze knows what is best for ndi igbo,Goodluck is an ijaw and like someone here rightly pointed out, ndi igbo owns nothing to ijaw,not with what they did during and after the war,not after what clark did to odili. But who should we vote for? is it the northerners? what made u think they wil return power come 2015? I didnt initially support Goodluck,but in as much as we hate to admit it,the truth is that at this point in time our best shot is Goodluck,we must start believing in ohaneze, this idea of speaking in different voices is what brought us to this situation today, nobody can claim to know what is best for ndi igbo than ohaneze,Ralph uwechue is our leader,it is bad when people say he is running a south south agenda,when we know his loyalty lies with ndigbo,unless we are saying we dont have ndi igbo in south south, remember that our people say that what an elder see while sitting down,a child cant see it even when he is standing. Udo di.

Well captured: There might be a few that do not agree but almost every Igbo stands on Ohanaeze's endorsement of G.Ebere.Jonathan.