2019: PDP zones President to North, VP goes to South East

Ahead of the May 21 National Convention of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, indications have emerged that the party has zoned the positions of president and vice president to the North and South East, respectively.
By the zoning arrangement, while the North will  retain the seat of the Senate President, the South South will produce the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the national chairman of the party.
Daily Sun gathered that in the proposal, the party has zoned the position of deputy Senate President, deputy National Secretary and National Organising Secretary to the South West.
In the document obtained by Daily Sun on Thursday, the South East, apart from producing the vice president, will also have the positions of national legal adviser, national treasurer and national youth Leader.
And, apart from the North producing the President and Senate President, the region will also produce the deputy Speaker, deputy National Chairman and the party’s national secretary.
Other offices zoned to the region include the national financial secretary, national publicity secretary, national auditor and national women leader.
The document proposed that further zoning to the South for the May 21 PDP convention be guided by so many factors.
One is that South West and South South had produced the country’s presidents and that the South East has not and should be given the opportunity for the highest office in the new dispensation.
Another factor is that the South West and South East had produced Speaker and President of the Senate, respectively, while the South South has not produced any of those.
The South West had also produced the national treasurer, national youth leader, national financial secretary as well as the national legal adviser, while the South East has produced national women leader.
Records also show that the South South hasalso produced national secretary and national organising secretary while the South South and North Central traditionally swap positions in the party’s zoning arrangement.
In the proposed 2016 zoning arrangement, the party stated that in order to give PDP a new lease of life, it was imperative that a clause in the guidelines for the 2016 National Convention be included, barring all those who had served the party, especially during the immediate past tenure of the outgoing National Working Committee (NWC) from contesting for any office in the incoming dispensation.

The zoning arrangement
1  President                                   North
2  Vice President                          South East
3  Senate President                       North
4  Speaker                                       South South
5  Deputy Senate President          South West
6  Deputy Speaker                          North
7  Chairman of PDP                        South South
8  Dept National Chair of PDP      North