Zoning agreement between S-E/Northern leaders:

Stories by Chioma Gabriel, Deputy Editor

Recently, the news media were agog with the news that the South-East and the North have reached an agreement to  support  zoning to the north till 2011.

Listed amongst these leaders were former military President, General Ibrahim Babangida, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, former Finance Minister, Adamu Ciroma, former Senate President, Ken Nnamani, former Governor Jim Nwobodo of old Anambra State, former Governor Chukwuemeka Ezeife of Anambra State and Prof. Ango Abdullahi amongst others. In a communique published Wednesday, the South East leaders and their Northern counterparts agreed that zoning of 2011 presidency remained in the North till 2015 after which it will go to the South-East.

Dr.Ezeife: Communique not acceptable

Also, the ACF which met in Kaduna on the same date  resolved that all the political parties should field  Northern presidential candidates  in the 2011 presidential election .

In this interview, Dr. Chukwuemeka Ezeife, who was amongst the South-East leaders that attended the meeting with northern elders denied that the communique was their agreement as according to him, the groups agreed before the meeting that no communique would be issued as the South-East leaders only went for an explanatory meeting and were meant to report back to the people during a summit scheduled to hold in Owerri  later in the year.

Ezeife posited that the South-East leaders were manouvred and deceived as the  leaders were not asked to take any position on behalf of Ndigbo.
Excerpts.

You were reported to be part of the meeting between South-East leaders and Northern elders where it was agreed that the north retains zoning till 2015. How true is this?

I went to the meeting with the North. We were  a group of Igbo leaders and we went to negotiate on the issue of zoning with  Northern elders. We were  also meant to go on a similar mission to the South-South to decide on what to tell our people during our Igbo Summit scheduled to take place at Owerri.

And after speaking with the South-South and the North, we were supposed to take the report to our people where we would then decide with one voice on which to go. But on Tuesday, we were manouvred and roped in.

There was not supposed to be any communique after the meeting. There was not supposed to be a decision. We went on a fact-finding mission and that was the basis of our meeting. But I don’t know what happened to our own leaders because I wasn’t the chairman from our side. Most of our people agreed there was not going to be decision before going into the meeting. I’m not talking about supporting or not supporting  zoning.

That is abracadabra. I have written a paper which conveyed my view on zoning. So, I’m not afraid of being misunderstood. What was in the communique was not supposed to be an agreement from the Igbo point of view.

What we went for was to have a discussion and then take in the view of the North and return to our people before adopting a position. The communique which was published in the newspapers was  not the view of the South East people on zoning.

But if you were there, you were a party to the communique.

I have told you what happened. North/South zoning is no zoning. It is anti zoning. Real zoning is around the six geo-political zones and I support the six geo-political zones. I don’t accept North/South zoning.

The media report also said your meeting agreed that the North will hold power till 2015 and then hand over to the South East.

What was said at the meeting was that the North should continue to hold power until 2015 and then handover to the South-East. That was what some of our people said at the meeting. It was not a general position and like I said, we were on explanatory talk with the North. I want you to also know that some of the South-East leaders who went on this explanatory talk with the North are already supporting zoning to the North.

That is their individual position.I am not supporting anybody. But the truth is that I have to be careful about this because I attended the meeting. I want you to also know that I challenged the proposal but I wasn’t allowed to talk when I signified my intention to do so.

You didn’t talk at the meeting?

I was not allowed to talk because I said no to the decision from the beginning when they began to make those analysis. I challenged the decision and I made my position clear. My position is at variance with the communique of that meeting because we agreed before the meeting that there would be no communique because the South East was not there to take a position but to find facts.
The communique issued is generating controversy because another group is supposed to meet on Monday.
People who know me know that I would not be part of such a decision because we didn’t go there to take a position for the South-East people. But I can tell you that the North came to this meeting in their heavy numbers.

The South-East people also attended in their heavy numbers. There are many people from the North and many also from the South-East. The South-East said at the meeting that they want power. That is our bargaining position.

This is what we went to project and we are meant to project this position of ‘we want power’ both to the North and the South-South people and I believe the meeting was explanatory. No announcement should be made but in the end, I was over-ruled when I wanted to speak against any communique being made. I submitted my name to the leader of the Igbo delegation that we cannot sign any announcement on the outcome of this meeting until we have fully consulted with our own people.

It is this kind of thing that doesn’t make Nigeria grow. Instead of being forthright, we are playing master/servant games. I may have to send a release to counter this communique and state things as they are.

So, what do you have to tell your South-East people some of whom don’t understand the whole thing?
I want the South-East and even the South-South people to know that Igbo people have not taken any decision.

We  are saying that the minimum we can accept is presidency of Igbo extraction by 2015 no matter how we get it.

We can get it by negotiation or by agreement but for now, the Igbos have not taken a consensus or unanimous position on the issue of zoning or no zoning. What we are saying is that we want a Nigerian president of Igbo extraction by 2015 and that is our slogan for now and that is what we are explaining to the North and the South-South.

We are not supporting anybody yet on zoning because our summit scheduled for Owerri, Imo State has not taken place and that is where we want to streamline some of these things. We have no decision yet on this.

But you must know that some of us are sold to the idea of working with the North and what they tried to do at the meeting was rope in some of us. That was why I tried to challenge them and make our position clear but I was not allowed to speak. They manouvred us but we are not sheep to be led to the slaughter like that.

We, of the South East have not taken a position and that remains a fact because the South-East is a large number and we are not asked to decide on behalf of the people. Nobody can rope us into an agreement we did not have.

No, the Northern leaders and some South-East leaders that attended that meeting got it wrong. We did not reach the agreement as communicated to the media. We were deceived. Our people should regard the communique as indiviual opinions and not Igbo position.