The jettisoning of the principles of rotation and zoning of elective offices in the Peoples Democratic Party in 2011, led to its steady decline, the acting chairman, Board of Trustees (BoT) of the PDP, Dr Bello Haliru Mohammed, has said.
According to Mohammed, the party’s eventual electoral loss in the 2015 presidential election emerged as the sad price the party had to pay for jettisoning its policy of rotation and zoning.
He made this disclosure in a six-point presentation to the 17-member 2015 PDP Post-Election Review Committee (PDP – PERC) headed by the Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, which took place in Abuja yesterday.
At a session with some members of the committee led by former Kaduna State Governor, Senator Ahmed Mohammed Makarfi, Mohammed, who was former acting National Chairman of the party, said that the party’s decline actually began in 2011 when the party abandoned zoning as a policy that had hitherto been a major attraction to the party as it offered all members equity, justice and a sense of belonging.
He added that the death of zoning in 2011, destroyed the party, adding that the issue was made worse with the adoption of former President Goodluck Jonathan as the sole presidential candidate of the party in 2015.
Interestingly, it was Mohammed, who raised the motion for the adoption of Jonathan as the sole presidential candidate of the PDP in the last presidential election.
His motion was seconded by a former Governor of Anambra State, Senator Jim Nwobodo.
But Mohammed, in a statement by his Special Assistant on Media, Mr. Emeka Nwapa, on Wednesday in Abuja, said “When the founding fathers formed the party in 1998, they established the principle of justice and equity, whereby, power resided with the people, who could decide who became what at any point in time.
“But overtime, the party swerved away and breached the principle thereby disrupting its internal democracy.
“When in 2011, the party abandoned its zoning formula, the party dealt itself a major blow because that action served the first notice that it had disconnected with the masses. So, we must go back to the culture of zoning and rotation of offices.
“The PDP remains the only true national party in the country with its flag in all nooks and crannies, whose members are assured that they can always aspire to any available position as long as zoning and rotation hold sway as a cardinal policy of the party”.
