Why I don’t support political office zoning, meeting with OBJ _ Sule Lamido

A former governor of Jigawa state, Sule Lamido, says he doesn’t support zoning political offices “because it hasn’t given positive results so far.”

Mr Lamido, a founding member of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) and presidential candidate, said this while speaking to BBC Hausa on Saturday saying the zoning has backfired.

His party practices rotating the Nigerian presidency between the north and south of the country and allocating other top posts based on geopolitical zones.

However, that arrangement has been in jeopardy since the death of President Umaru Yar’adua in 2010 and the nomination of his Vice President, Goodluck Jonathan, as the PDP’s presidential candidate in 2011.

“Even if they (PDP members) come and talk about zoning, I will tell them no. Because in these days of development, the world has passed the stage of zoning political office. What they discuss is how to progress. We should be discussing how to better build our people, how to ensure unity among our people. And I think we can get that person from anywhere in the country, so we shouldn’t be talking about zoning right now,” he said.

Lamido said that he has always been a national politician, hence his decision to always support the best candidate.

“I don’t care if that person is Muslim or Christian, Hausa or Angas or Yoruba. If he is able, bring him. We should forget about this zoning issue because where has it positively taken us as a country?” Mr. Lamido and many other prominent northern politicians, including former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, former Senate President Bukola Saraki, former Kano Governor Musa Kwankwaso, and Sokoto Governor Aminu Tambuwal are believed to be interested in seeking the presidential candidacy of the the PDP in 2023.

Commenting on why PDP leaders visited former President Olusegun Obasanjo, who in 2015 publicly tore up his party membership card, Lamido said they were there to save the country.

He said that the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari has destroyed everything built by the PDP in its 16 years of leadership, hence the decision to “rescue the country”.

“Almost everything the PDP did has been destroyed by APC. There is a high rate of poverty in the country, insecurity is alarming, the lack of unity among the people of the country. We sat down and deliberated on how to start the mission to save this country and that’s how we decided to meet with him (Obasanjo) and discussed with him for two hours.

“We only went there to discuss the future of this country and nothing else and we went to him because he knows how to rescue this country. He knows how he left this country in good standing and we know that he loves Nigeria very much. So, we went there to beg him about the way forward. And we know that we can only rescue Nigeria through the PDP, but we must also speak to everyone who matters in the party, including those who have been offended to bring them back to their beloved party,” he said.