The statement of the former minister of water resources and former Deputy Governor of Sokoto State, Alhaji Mukhtar Shagari, has elicited a backlash from the Concerned PDP League.
The Concerned PDP League described as a distortion of history, the statement of Alhaji Shagari, challenging him to speak the truth about the zoning issue in the party and not embellish it.
Alhaji Mukhtar Shagari while speaking on Sunday on a channels TV programme Sunday Politics claimed, the issue of a rotational presidency is just a side show. “That Obasanjo was brought by the PDP in order to satisfy what has been termed injustice done to the people of Southwest by June 12.”
“The PDP felt that this is the time for us to look at all those issues and heal the wounds; that is why Obasanjo was brought in, he was not brought in for zoning, nobody was talking about zoning at that time.
But the group in a swift reaction said, ” that was the narrative that informed the zoning and rotational presidency in PDP, just like the Ekweremadu panel report and Bala Muhammed’s statement while submitting his committee report, so it is not just a sideshow. After all, before APC, there was zoning in PDP.”
“Okay, if that was or is the case, what will he say about the Sen. Ike Ekweremadu panel recommendation that ” In consonance with section 7(3)c, Zone Presidency to the North in 2019 and said the party should strictly apply the zoning principle at all levels. That was how presidential primary became all northern affairs that produced Alhaji Atiku Abubakar as the flag bearer of PDP, just to make recent reference?”
“Alhaji Mukhtar Shagari courage and conscience failed him to confirmed that, right from the inception of PDP, there was and still is zoning but rather, was only able to give us the reason for the zoning. I will cite sections in both the Nigeria and PDP constitutions as amended and also cite authorities from unwritten conventions and traditions to rubbish his unfounded opinion if we are in a debate” Warmate said.
“I feel disgusted and pained when leaders in trying to distort history insult the sensibility of some of us who are students of history and the sensitivity of the zoning issue.”
Warmate who has been a member since 1999 prefers to be called a sustaining member of PDP rather than a founding member said, “Leaders should be researchful before approaching the media not just because they are resourceful”.
“Univocally PDP is the zeitgeist of zoning, It will be an unseeming behavior for the party to view or define zoning from the lens of PDP rather than the prism of Nigeria. That may present us before Nigerians as a party with people of narrow or little minds, he said and quoted Fredrick Douglas that said, “Knowledge makes a man unfit to be a slave.”
