VON’s Ex-DG warns against ethnic tension fuelled by disregard for presidential zoning

Former Director-General of the Voice of Nigeria (VON) and APC basis member, Osita Okechukwu, has mentioned that former Vice President Atiku Abubakar’s breach of zoning is fuelling political tensions within the North and, by extension, nationwide, thereby vindicating advocates of Nigeria’s power-rotation and zoning conference.

Mr Okechukwu, who mentioned this in an announcement on Sunday in Abuja, appealed to northerners to keep away from the hazards of ethno-identity politics pushed by one man and his cohorts, noting that nations like Sudan have but to get better from ethnic rivalry.

“The South has other presidential candidates, and truly Atiku and Tinubu are ten and ten pence going by their antecedents,” he mentioned.

He lamented that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is but to get better from Atiku’s breach of zoning within the 2023 presidential election, contending that the 2027 contest would have been much less acrimonious if the African Democratic Congress (ADC) had revered the precept of presidential energy rotation and offered a southern candidate.

Mr Okechukwu reminded Nigerians that some distinguished politicians, together with Abubakar Rimi, Umaru Shinkafi, Adamu Ciroma, Olusola Saraki, Alex Ekwueme, and Ogbonnaya Onu, whom he described as patriots, saved the nation in 1999 from ethno-identity politics by subordinating their private presidential ambitions to broader nationwide unity.

“Zoning advocates have persistently maintained that presidential energy rotation is a crucial instrument for managing Nigeria’s range.

“The current political tension demonstrates why zoning convention should not be treated as an expendable item, merely to accommodate an individual’s presidential ambition. Moreover, when he has no concrete solution to our economic quagmire,” he mentioned.

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The former VON DG cited the peaceable nature of the 1999, 2007 and 2019 presidential elections of Olusegun Obasanjo vs Olu Falae, Muhammadu Buhari vs Umaru Yar’Adua and Muhammadu Buhari vs Atiku Abubakar, all residing testimony of how rotation conference undoubtedly sustained nationwide stability.

He expressed concern over studies that safety personnel are deployed to guard marketing campaign posters and billboards of presidential candidates, describing the scenario as a troubling improvement.

He famous the excessive alternative value of deploying safety officers to political duties when there are myriads of kidnappings, armed robberies, the farmer-herder disaster, and varied insurgencies unattended.

Mr Okechukwu, subsequently, known as on Atiku’s supporters and different political stakeholders “to stop framing the 2027 presidential contest as a zero-sum game between North and South; such rhetoric could deepen ethnic divisions and may inadvertently place our fledgling democracy in harm’s way.”