This template was like non before
it: unlike in the past when those offices were allocated on the basis of a North-South and vice verse arrangement,
this one seemingly focused exclusively, in spite of the overall performance of the party in the zones, on rewarding arrow-heads or rather, lead
arrangers of the GoodLuck for President campaigns in the respective zones.
So David Mark, the most
successful Chairman of the National Assembly since the creation of Nigeria,
retained his senate president duty post alongside his deputy, upon their re-election; unlike was the case from
1999-2007 where the office had gone to southerners consequent upon the election
of another southerner as president with
a northerner as Vice. In the house of representative, the same pattern was re-enacted as the
speakership, thanks to Obasanjo, was
allowed to remain in the south-west even though, Bankole did not make it back
to the house and the entire zone produced just three members from the party.
In the south-east, the lead arranger
of the campaign was no doubt the Oha N’ Eze and was therefore rewarded with the
position of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation since they were
not, before now, having any of it loyal members in any of the top most jobs.
The elected representatives from the zone protested but was told in
unmistakable terms by the party owners that the new formula was sacrosanct.
They, the south-east representatives, temporize with the party owners while
working with their northern colleagues for a better deal. Their plot triumphed,
ultimately and they were rewarded with the position of deputy speakership post as
against their desired position, the speakership.
Enter PDP with the initial
idiotic gesture of not recognizing or rather refusing to congratulate the
speaker and his deputy but rather pontificating
about zoning and the need to respect same within the party. A visit to
the party head office by the speaker and his deputy coupled with the
president’s public message to the house suspended the proposed lecture series
by the party.
The truth be told, neither the
party nor the presidency had an attack nor defense weapon against the action of
the house as they could not have expected to make their brand of omelet after
smashing the egg long ago. Any argument against the house would have seem like
a monologue since they would squaring up against their anti-zoning argument of
not too long ago.
For one, if they argue that they
had absolute control of the house, the house could have rejoined that the party
even had firmer control of the party membership and therefore, delegates to the
national convention to have ensure the respect of the party constitution as it
applied to zoning and still could not enforce the position of the party’s
constitution but rather allowed individuals to voter according to their
“conscience”.
The zoning dam has already been
broken and the PDP cannot hope to sweep back the content with the broom. The president said it himself that zoning was
only applicable where the party had control in other words, the party by virtue
of his emergency has control in the executive and can therefore, zone or
regulate appointments in that branch to carter to interest holders.
With David Mark and Tambawal
emerging in the National Assembly, they can now go ahead to apply zoning in
distributing chairmanship and principal officers positions in both chambers.
Going forward, it is more going
to be survival of the best negotiators. The party’s carrot and stick tactics
has finally been put to rest and it was deployed against the member s who
defied same and went ahead to vote their “conscience” no future primaries of the party would be
decided solely on the feelings or position of the party leadership or that of
the most ranking political office holder from the party.