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Akinwande Soji-Ojo
A former deputy national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Bode George, has urged the opposition party to suspend its constitution to effect the removal of Iyorcha Ayu as its national chairman.
George stated this one Friday while speaking on Arise TV.
He said that had the party stuck religiously to its principle of zoning, Atiku Abubakar would not have become its standard bearer.
He said the former vice president was allowed to contest, and eventually won the presidential ticket based on an in-house agreement that opposed the provision of the party’s constitution.
During the lead-up to its presidential primary, PDP threw the ticket open to members across all geopolitical zones of the country despite calls that based on the party’s rotational policy,the position should go to the South.
Atiku emerged as the party’s flagbearer for the 2023 presidential election and there have been efforts to remove Ayu as the chairman, to make way for a southerner to occupy the position.
The call for Ayu’s resignation is said to be because the national chairman and the presidential candidate are from the same region.
On Wednesday, Abubakar addressed the concern and said the only way Ayu can be removed as chairman is when the PDP constitution is amended.
He added that such a decision cannot be taken without considering the legal implications.
Atiku’s stance stance of the has stirred responses from party chieftains and stakeholders.
George had during a press conference in Lagos on Thursday called for Ayu’s resignation while making a case for the position to be filled by a southerner.
Defending his call for Ayu’s resignation on Friday, George said it was surprising that some party members are advocating for the anti-Ayu group to respect the constitutional provision that supports a new chairman to emerge from the same zone as Ayu even if he (Ayu) resigns.
The elder statesman explained that if the party members can abandon the constitution and allow all zones to contest when in fairness the presidency should have been zoned to another region aside from the North, then the same can apply to Ayu’s situation for another chairman to come from the South.
“On the issue of constitutionality, I referred you to the fact that our party’s constitution explicitly states and I quote: “there will be zoning and rotation of elective offices and party offices” and if we had stuck rigidly to that, there was no chance for Atiku to have emerged as the presidential candidate.
“So, when it suits you, you can refer to the constitution and when it doesn’t suit you, you can back away from the constitution. If we all on moral suasion purpose, and during a family discussion we agreed that look, people have been canvassing, spending money and going round from the last six months and since there was no definitive selection or zoning of whether it should come from the North, South, West or East, let us allow this to go now, the same principle is what will happen for Ayu.
“If we could accept the issue (sideline constitution provision) for a presidential candidate to come from any zone then, which is against what is in our constitution, then what is good for the goose is good for the gander. On this premise (Ayu’s resignation), we can do that again. Allow us for this period to do that because no matter what happens, at the end of the election, whether we win or we don’t win, there will be a convention to revisit the whole thing about these positions.
“They (those backing Ayu’s chairmanship) are making it look as if it is rigidity. We bent the constitution based on moral suasion purposes, justice, and equity to allow all the zones to contest and now when the same issue comes up to allow the South to produce the national chairman, they are now saying no, it will go against the constitution.
“It is true it will go against the constitution. But they forget there was a provision for the zoning of the presidential candidate in the constitution too but we abandoned that for unity and peace, we allowed everyone to contest and if we were able to do that at that time, what is different now?” he said.