By Mack Ogbamosa

ASIDE from the request for extension of time for the 2011 general elections by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) chairman, Professor Attahiru Jega, the greatest debate in Nigeria’s political circle today is that of zoning or power rotation

While the opponents of zoning say there is no provision for it in respect of the office of president and vice president in the constitution of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the proponents of zoning argue that there is not only a provision for it in the PDP constitution but that there was also an agreement by PDP leaders to rotate power between the North and South.

Specifically, they quote Section 7(2)(c) of the PDP constitution which states: “In pursuance of the principles of equity, justice and fairness, the party shall adhere to the policy of rotation and zoning of party and public elective offices: and it shall be enforced by the appropriate executive committee at all levels, from councillor to presidency”.

They also cite the agreement reached by PDP caucus on December 2, 2002 . According to a recent newspaper report, former vice president, Atiku Abubakar, was quoted as saying that President Goodluck Jonathan, then deputy governor of Bayelsa State, was present at the meeting where a decision was taken to rotate the presidency on the basis of eight years each between the North and the South. Atiku also said the highpoint of the minutes of the meeting was that: “The national caucus generally decided that the 1998 zoning of the positions of the President, Vice President, Senate President, Speaker, Party Chairman, Party Secretary, etc, should remain as it would stabilise the party…”.

While this writer is not in anyway opposed to zoning, it will be proper for us to locate the historical antecedents that might have compelled the proponents of zoning to so do.

Without mincing words, the prelude to this concept of zoning by the PDP is the June 12, 1993 presidential election generally believed to have been won by the late Chief M.K.O Abiola.

As an editor in the Daily Times of Nigeria (DTN) PLC at the time, I was a witness to some of the dangers posed by the annulment of that election. I was a witness to how stories and editorial opinions were smuggled into the newspaper(s).

I was a witness to the publication of the pronouncement of a Lagos High Court which declared that the Interim National Government (ING) headed by Chief Ernest Shonekan was illegal and how the Night Editor who cast that headline was removed even though the paper sold more copies on that day than any other during the period. In fact, vendors were asking for more copies of the publication.

Of course, the consequences of perversion of the truth were so grave that even the coming of the great Peter Pan (Peter Enahoro) to the DTN as sole administrator some years later could not salvage the situation.

While Peter Pan tried to change the paper’s format, he could not change the fortunes. Consequently, the paper lost many of its readers and advertisement patronage. Revenue base was so low that it became difficult and even impossible to pay salaries.

Today, we are all witnesses to what has happened to the former newspaper conglomerate established in 1926, which was acclaimed to be the second largest in Africa after AL-Ahram of Egypt established in 1875.

While such great institutions were dying, the nation itself was disintegrating.