*President Jonathan mulls remedial options
*Jostle for 2015 begins

Even before the inauguration on Sunday May 29, 2011, the zoning palaver in the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, specifically the speakership which has been zoned to the least supportive South West geo-political zone, is turning out to be a very tricky but dangerous political game.  What are the tricks and the dangers?

By Jide Ajani, Deputy Editor

They are simply shooing the proposal; members of the House of Representatives, that is. And President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan is now wondering what public service actually means.  He has called a meeting for today in Aso Rock Presidential Villa, Abuja.  All things being equal, the meeting should hold later today.  It is an expanded caucus meeting and it is coming on the heels of an earlier one which knocked into shape a zoning formula.  That earlier meeting was held on the night of Tuesday, May 10, 2011, at the same venue, specifically, the First Lady’s Conference Room.  It was at that meeting that the zoning arrangement was agreed upon and made public later. And then bedlam!

And that is exactly why another meeting is being called.

Following the apparent potentially injurious machinations being put together in the House of Representatives by some old and new members, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, leadership needed to act fast.

The plot in the House
It is no more a rumour that some members of the House of Representatives are intent on having a showdown with the leadership of the PDP over the zoning arrangement which has allocated the office of the Speaker, House to the South-West geo-political zone.

*President Jonathan and Vice President Sambo

Interestingly, the South-West has just six members of PDP extraction – mind you, in the Senate, the party has just one senator.

Already, former President Olusegun Obasanjo has held a meeting with a handful of leaders in the zone to anoint Honourable Ajibola Sabauna Muraina, defeating another female member, Honourable Mulikat Ajibola (f).

But the members of the House are not ready to take that.

Although Hon. Muraina, a lawyer, Muslim and second term member, fits the bill within the context of his qualification, the mood in the House, at least at press time, suggests that the members do not want to suffer Muraina’s choice.

Therefore, two possible individuals have emerged.

One is Aminu Tabuwal, from Sokoto State and Emeka Ihedioha, from the South-East.

What the members are trying to do is to send a clear signal to the PDP leadership, specifically, the Board of Trustees Chairman, Obasanjo, that the zoning arrangement stands logic on its head.

Spurred by political leaders from the South-East zone, who feel slighted by the zoning of the speakership to the South-East, members are spoiling to do their own thing.

The Danger
The members, too, are aiming to make nonsense of the arrangement of zoning.

If they succeed with their agenda on Tambuwal, and vote him in as Speaker, the move would create an unprecedented imbalance and injure the entire idea of zoning.

Vice President Namadi Sambo is from Kaduna State, which is in the North-West zone as well as Tambuwal’s Sokoto. So, should the members succeed in foisting Tambuwal on the polity via their open secret voting system, the zone would produce the number two and number four citizens.

For Ikedioha, he would be voted in as Deputy Speaker.

Even the idea of open secret ballot, as against the tradition of electronic or voice voting, is for the specific reason of shielding members from the prying eyes of PDP leaders who would be on hand to monitor the election of the Speaker.

Unlike the open secret balloting which took place at the PDP convention which produced President Jonathan – but which carried the intended or unintended discount of exposing voters – the members in the House do not want that.

The danger in the plot is that it may signpost other further confrontation between an arm of the legislature and the executive.

Firstly, there are fears that should the members go ahead with their showdown and succeed in having their way as against the party’s wish, then some people would be forced to eat the humble pie.

But more dangerous is the suggestion that what is going on in the House now goes beyond just zoning.

A leader in the PDP disclosed that some members in the House are being used to get at the President.
“What is going on is not just some members pushing for what they want.

“What we are hearing is that some people are still trying to contest an election that has been won and lost.  We are monitoring the events,” the party leader said.

Sunday Vanguard has been made to understand that in the event that the meeting of today alters the zoning as it was agreed earlier, those who think they have won may actually lose.

“Those individuals who are strutting about now as being capable of moving mountains would discover to their chagrin that they would lose out”, our source said.

Just last Thursday, it was believed that Bello Haliru Mohammed, PDP Acting National Chairman, was on a mission to get members to tone down on their opposition to the zoning arrangement.  Although one of his aides denied any knowledge of such a mission, it was gathered that the leadership of the party is not comfortable with what is happening.

Specifically, it is believed that some other forces outside the House are in the process of hijacking the zoning issue.

2015 on their mind
What is emerging is that the new agenda being pushed would not stop even after the emergence of a new Speaker.

The jostling for 2015 presidential election has commenced in earnest.

“A section of the leadership of the PDP is seeing beyond the surface.  What is being done is an attempt to test and push the party to the limits and see what happens”, a source told Sunday Vanguard.

In fact, the push to jettison the zoning arrangement of the party by members of the House of Representatives is only the first in a series of other possible agitations that may follow in the build up to the 2015 general elections.

Should the northern members of the House and their South-East counterparts succeed in upturning the PDP arrangement, then a new possible template for allocation of offices may have been unveiled.
And this would no doubt hurt any arrangements the PDP may have for 2015.

What this would then mean is that members of the party can go against it.

This is what President Jonathan is determined to stop.

That is why today’s meeting remains crucial – if it holds.