By Ahmad Abiodun

SPECULATION emerging from the All Progressives Congress, APC, points in the direction of a likely re-zoning, but we feel this is inappropriate and may lead to further crisis in the party.  For the sake of equity, the party should not re-zone the chairmanship position until the tenure of the South South geo-political zone is completed.

In 2014 the chaimanship position was zoned to the South South geo-political zone of the country and micro-zoned to Edo State because Cross River State had the zonal chaiman’s position. Chief Odigie Oyegun was chairman from 2014-2018 and Comrade Adams Oshiomhole continued till 2020. So what happens to 2020-2022?

This is a sensitive matter that the party must ponder over to avoid distrust within the party. It could lead to chaos that may snowball into 2023 which is the election year. This status quo should be allowed to thrive as it will further foster cohesion and equity within the party structure.

It will give the party the national outlook it has for now, but if it’s re-zoned to the north it may lead to further crisis which is the last thing the party wants for now.  Now that the leader of the party, President Muhamnadu Buhari, has given the caretaker committee the nod to carry out fresh registration, the new exco after the party’s convention in December can continue from where it stopped.

To restore confidence in the present members, the convention should hold in December for a smooth take-off of the new exco in 2021. The year 2023 is just around the corner, and if the party does not right the wrongs via the convention in December then the party is heading towards further crisis.

Re-zoning the position to the north while the sitting president is from the north may fuel distrust which the party can cleverly avoid and retain the south south zone.

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But the discordant voices emanating from the ruling party is quite disturbing, if it is true that the caretaker committee is embarking on tenure elongation instead of midwiving it towards a convention next month.

This development in the party needs to be checkmated before it snowballs into a full blown crisis that may rubbish all the good intentions of setting up the caretaker committee.

The caretaker committee should immediately begin the process of convening the national convention in December to rekindle hope and trust in the party. The party needs to redefine and if need be re-engineer its political processes to accommodate internal democracy for a better tomorrow. In-fighting in the party will continue if the caretaker committee decides to buy time into 2021.

The caretaker committee should immediately begin the process of convening the National Convention in December to rekindle hope and trust in the party. The emergence of a group under the auspices of concerned members should not be swept under the carpet.

If a man wakes up in the morning and sees the kennery bird dancing in the midst of lions and tigers, he needs no soothsayer to know that there must be a powerful drummer somewhere that could deal with other animals. Their demands maybe outrageous, but there maybe an urgent need to address the reasonable ones.

One of their demands is that the convention must hold in 2020 and that the new exco should be in a better position to conveniently midwife the registration exercise for the party. They may appear as a small group shouting new cabal, new sweet nonesense but if they carry out the threat of going to court this could slow down the party. The party needs to open its ears to all forms of protests now!A stitch in time they say saves nine.

Vanguard News Nigeria