Ahead of the scramble for tickets of various political parties in the lead-up to the 2023 general election, a lawyer and chieftain of the People’s Democratic Party PDP, Charlie Agbo, speaks on the vexed issue of zoning which he said is partly responsible for the relative peace in the country and especially in Enugu State.

By Omeiza Ajayi, Abuja

2023 is by the corner and the political thermometer of the country is on the uptick. As an ally of the Enugu State Governor, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, can you say if he will be joining the presidential race?

I think he is preoccupied with his mandate, which will end in 2023. The people are impressed with his strides. One of the most striking things about him is his ability to pay workers in the state and still embark on several development projects.

I recently had the opportunity to inspect the ESUT Campus site at Nsukka and I was marveled at the sheer scope of the project. The number of buildings already standing and dotting that pristine landscape is amazing. It is a testimony to constructive and frugal management of scarce financial resources of the state.

 You are trying to evade my question. I am talking about politics. I recognize those strides you are referring to, but Fani Kayode in a recent interview referred to Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi as one of the best presidential materials in the PDP even though he is not showing interest.

Well, it is the nature, sometimes of things. Some of the best materials may not be forth-coming. What I say to Fani-Kayode and other well-meaning Nigerians who have expressed such sentiments is that it is an evolving process. Let us leave it at that.

Zoning of political offices in Enugu State has been controversial of late. Do you believe in zoning?

Yes, I do. The peace we have in Enugu State is a consequence of zoning. It has brought down the political temperature of the state, guaranteeing that we do not have many needless political contests. For instance, I will not enter the race for the governorship election in 2023 because my zone, Enugu North, is in power. And so it is for most people from Enugu West in the PDP. I can’t speak for other parties. But you will be surprised to find out that other parties are in sympathy with this affirmative action kick-started by the PDP and will make their nominations largely on the basis of this template.

Zoning is important because it gives everyone in a political entity a sense of belonging. There is no denying the benefits of this practice. But beyond the benefit in infrastructural terms, there is also the psychological relief that you are not missing out in the scheme of things. You can beat your chest and say ‘our son is in charge; this is the way we do it.’

But the critics of zoning in your state contend that there was no agreement at any time by the stakeholders in the state to zone the governorship position. What’s your take?

This is not a smart argument. You can’t enter a bus from point A to point B and claim that there was no contract between you and the driver. Not all contracts are written, just like not all constitutions that are written. It is too late in the day for a practice that has seen 22 years to be controverted by the sheer disingenuous whims of some individuals.

You can’t have your zone enjoy the benefits of zoning for eight years and claim tomorrow that you don’t know about it. You do. You must know. We are talking about zoning in consequence just as we talk about agreement by conduct. So if you board a bus from point A to point B, you must pay the driver, otherwise you will have a date with the law. The democratic process is sustained by respect for process. It smacks of greed to seek to torpedo a given and working order in order to achieve some selfish ends. It is the same reason for which democracy is being threatened in the United States of America today because some interests feel too big to lose an election. But you really can’t win without being prepared to lose. You can’t reconfigure a goal post midway in a game.

Where were these anti-zoning proponents when power moved from Enugu East to Enugu West in 2007? Do they by any chance think it was a happenstance? No. It was a deliberate effort to zone for the sake of equity, fairness and justice. Again, where were these people when power moved from Enugu East in 2015 to Enugu North? Did they imagine it was in error? No. It was in conformity with the tenets of affirmative action, all designed to foster lasting peace in Enugu State.

Today, Enugu is the envy of the whole of the South-East, indeed the entire country for the uncommon capacity to get this political Act right. And as we are basking in its benefits and accolades, a few individuals want to dislodge it. It won’t happen.

What if these individuals refuse to yield to the popular belief in the existence of zoning?

This is democracy. Zoning is non-justiceable. It is an internal affair of the PDP so they can’t seek or have relief in court. But they have a wide array of options. One of them is to switch parties and try their luck elsewhere. This assumption that the incumbent party must win has been proved wrong in a few states. But very unfortunately, Enugu is a PDP state, so, such a move will definitely hit the rocks. It is assured.

 Professor Barth Nnaji, the former Minister of Power, is reported to be canvassing the anointing of a governorship candidate from Nkanu East. This is a clear indication of his advocacy for micro-zoning of the 2023 election

I have argued somewhere else that micro-zoning is not in tandem with the tradition of affirmative action because it confuses the message. If, as the Igbo are clamouring for Nigerians to vote a presidential candidate of Igbo extraction, will it not be very absurd for someone like Professor Barth Nnaji to be canvassing for a presidential candidate from Enugu State-as against an Igbo man at large- on the basis that the first president of Nigeria, Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe was from Onitsha, in Anambra, while General J.T.U. Aguyi Ironsi, the first military head of state was from Abia, that it is the turn of Enugu?

Critics of zoning have argued that the whole process revolves around the governor and doesn’t give room for the people to be involved.

This is not true. The governor belongs to one political party. There are several other parties contesting the governorship position. The zoning process involves also those other parties. Somebody takes this decision for them. The governor’s role as the leader of the ruling party is central. But what he does is no more than endorsing a candidate which is within his rights.

There is nothing undemocratic about it. The fact that the rank and file of the party see his endorsement as inviolable only speaks to the power inherent in that position as conferred by the Constitution. But then that power is not absolute as has been established in a few instances. It is only advisory and the party may reject it. This was the case in Ebonyi State where the governor’s choice of successor in 2015 was successfully challenged by the party apparatchik. That was how Dave Umahi supplanted Professor Chukwu, the Governor’s anointed candidate. In the same token, whoever emerges through this process confronts candidates from other parties. So the will of the majority in the state will ultimately prevail.

Those criticizing zoning in the state are said to be canvassing for a more direct role to be played by voters in the process. How feasible is this?

This is not possible unless they are advocating an election before the election. This is the major issue with direct primaries. Is it INEC that will conduct the process to determine the benefitting zone? Or is it INEC that will determine the preferred candidate? You can see that this is not realistic.

But some of the anti-zoning proponents claim that the path of zoning, along senatorial zones, is not equitable since they are from very underdeveloped parts of the state…

What does that mean? Does that make sense to you? Because you feel you are from an underdeveloped part of the state then we must carve out another zone, a fourth zone for you. Tell me, is there any state in this country that has four senatorial zones? But then they want in consequence a zone all for themselves. Do you know that by the number, old Nsukka is more than half of the population of Enugu State? In effect, just on the strength of numbers, she can hypothetically keep the governorship of the state in perpetuity? But does she press this advantage? No, because they are equitable. They were even the zone to wait the longest for ‘their turn’.

Talking about ‘their turn,’ some people feel that one of the downsides of zoning is the undue concentration of development and even appointments in the benefiting zone…

Well, as we transition as a people, it is expected that a few imperfections in this experiment will self-correct. Or a conscious effort is made to do so. It will be unprofitable or even pretentious denying the privileges enjoyed by the benefiting zones. But I also know that the governors make a conscious effort to evenly spread development and appointments across the state. However, identified imperfections are not enough to counter the benefits of zoning. I recommend that we hold on to zoning because it has helped to quieten the political temperature of the state.