By Rufus Ike

Dr. Isaiah Osifo, who served as chief of staff in the Oserheimen Osunbor administration, has called for the application of zoning in the determination of the APC governorship candidate as a way of bringing the needed political balance to the state.

Osifo himself from Edo South, however, said that the Edo Central Senatorial District, which has not produced a substantive governor of the state should be given the opportunity of producing the candidate.

Imansuagbon

Living to his word, Osifo, a former chairman of Uhunmwode Local Government Area of the state has endorsed the aspiration of Mr. Kenneth Imansuagbon, the only declared aspirant from Edo Central in contention for the ticket of any of the major parties.

“Those who put federal character into our constitution are not fools. They had an intention because they realised that Nigeria is a heterogeneous state and that if you don’t have federal character, the major tribes could dominate the entire society, and that would lead to imbalance. To balance a society, there is the need for federal character and balancing.

“I believe that we in Edo State must not ignore the importance of political balancing in our society, and that is reflected by the principle of zoning. By zoning if it is the issue some are canvassing, I think Ken Imasuagbon is the only one that is qualified to have the governorship because of zoning because Edo North has had eight years, Edo South has had eight years; it is really now the turn of Edo Central Senatorial District.

“Although some will say that the first eight years was not on the ticket of the APC, but I believe we don’t have PDP or APC governor of Edo State, what we have is governor of Edo State, so the argument that the previous ones were not produced by APC is not really tenable. So, I believe that the zoning formula really favours Barrister Ken Imansuagbon as the senatorial district that is next in turn.

I believe in merit too, but we are not sacrificing merit for zoning, we are saying that in respect of the two factors, zoning, and merit, he has the two factors that are important,” Osifo said.