A legal practitioner, Austin Osarenkhoe, in this article, opines that zoning, which is a clause in the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) constitution, is not dead as erroneously believed in some quarters because the constitution of the party has not been amended and the clause has not been deleted.

There is a raging controversy among partisan members of the Peoples Democratic Party as to what part of Nigeria the  Presidential Candidate for the 2011 Presidential Election should come from, having regard to its zoning policy. Whilst some insist that the zoning policy of the Party is valid and subsisting, others maintain that it is dead.

I am not a member of the Peoples Democratic Party. But I am a Nigerian and the debate is of legal interest to me, as a student of Constitutional Law; Politics and Power-Play.

The National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Chief Okwesilieze Nwodo, was widely reported in some newspapers of Thursday July 8, 2010 to have said as follows:

Yes, I said to BBC and I repeat to you again that zoning in PDP has been jettisoned. There is no zoning on ground right now. Absolutely, there is no zoning. In 1999, there was zoning and only one Northerner insisted on his inalienable right in the Nigerian Constitution to contest against the zoning arrangement of the PDP. The PDP put its foot down and I wrote a letter to him and returned his cheque. That is the late Abubakar Rimi of blessed memory.

In 2003, after four years of Obasanjo, candidates sprang up from across the country. They paid, they canvassed. Nobody returned their money. Nobody wrote them that there was zoning. Nobody! In 2007, there were more candidates from Southern Nigeria than Northern Nigeria and I think if that election was allowed to hold without interference;  may be anybody among Peter Odili, Donald Duke or Sam Egwu would have won. They all paid. Nobody returned their money. Nobody stopped them.

Nobody talked about zoning. They all contested. Why zoning now?  Why?
We have jettisoned it, but we can revisit it. I’m not afraid about revisiting it. If we think that we need to revisit zoning today, let us revisit zoning. But the one we did in 1999, no, no, no, no, it has been jettisoned by PDP itself.”

So those who are talking about that agreement are not following the history of the party. The party has never stopped anybody after 1999. Chief Tony Anenih, former Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Peoples Democratic Party, in his open letter dated June 14, 2010 to the National Working Committee of the Party, was also reported in some newspapers to have expressed similar opinions.

I submit that the duo of Chief Okwesilieze Nwodo and Chief Tony Anenih, jointly and severally, with due respect, are wrong. It is like saying that because armed robbers are on the rampage on our highways, the law against armed robbery is dead. Or because kidnappers are having a field day, the law against kidnapping is dead. A law does not become dead because it is breached. That some members of PDP of Northern extraction; late Alhaji Abubakar Rimi and Chief Bernabas Gemade, breached the PDP Constitutional provision on zoning, at the time the presidency was zoned to the South, does not make zoningdead.

The Nation newspaper, on Sunday of July 11, 2010 in its Editorial at page 13 titled “No to zoning” said:
“Most importantly, zoning is alien to the 1999 Constitution and as such null and void.”

I submit that the above editorial opinion does not represent the correct position of the law on the issue under debate. An Editorial Opinion ought to avail itself of relevant research and resource materials on the issues under consideration before publication.

I submit that PDP’s Zoning is constitutional: See Article 7(2)(c) of the Constitution of the Peoples Democratic Party of 2009 which provides:

“In pursuance of the principles of equity, justice and fairness, the Party shall adhere to the Policy of rotation and zoning of Party and Public elective offices and it shall be enforced by the appropriate executive committee at all levels.”

Again, in its Primacy Provision, the PDP Constitution states:

“Without prejudice to the provision of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria or of any other law for the time being in force in the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the provisions of this Constitution shall take precedence over and above any other Rules or Regulations of the Party, where such Rules or Regulations are inconsistent with the provisions of the Constitution of the Party.”

What is more, every member of the Party (i.e. PDP) made a solemn declaration to be bound by the provisions of the Party’s Constitution, wherein they stated thus:

“We, members of the Peoples Democratic Party, Do hereby solemnly RESOLVE, This  day, to give unto ourselves this Constitution, having duly accepted that in all conduct and deliberations we shall be bound and directed by its provisions. The provisions of this Constitution shall be supreme and any other rules or regulations of the party, which are inconsistent with these provisions shall, to the extent of such inconsi-stency be null and void.

Therefore, the Party’s Constitution is a legal contract among its members with all the incidences of the law of contract and is binding on them. Zoning therefore as contained in  PDP’s Constitution has the force of the law of contract among its members. This makes the zoning Policy of PDP legal.

More importantly, the Constitution of PDP which contains provision on Zoning enjoys the recognition and authority of the 1999 Nigerian Constitution: See FAWEHINMI V. NBA (NO. 2) (2002) 50 WRN 27 AT 67 LINES 35-37 per Agbaje, JSC; Sections 78 and 80 of the Electoral Act, 2006; Sections 222 (c) and (d); 223(b) and 224 of the 1999 Constitution:

Section 222 (c) and (d) of the 1999 Constitution provides:

No association by whatever name called shall function as a political party, unless:-
(a)    ………………………………………………………………………..
(b)    …………………………………………………………………..
(c)    a copy of its constitution is registered in the principal office of the Independent National Electoral Commission in such form as may be prescribed by the Independent National Electoral Commission;
(d)    any alteration in its registered constitution is also registered in the principal office of the Independent National Electoral Commission within thirty days of the making of such alteration;
(e)    ………………………………………………………………..
(f)    ………………………………………………………………..
Section 223 (b) of the 1999 Constitution provides:

The constitution and rules of a political party shall:-
(a)    ……………………………………………………………………..
(b)    ensure that the members of the executive committee or other governing body of the political party reflect the federal character of Nigeria.
Section 224 of the 1999 Constitution provides:

The programme as well as the aims and objects of a political party shall conform with the provisions of Chapter II of this Constitution.

PDP zoning Policy as enshrined in Article 7(2)(c) of its Constitution is therefore in compliance with the mandatory federal character provisions of the  Nigerian Constitution as required by the said Nigerian Constitution : See Sections 223 (b) and 224 of the 1999 Constitution, supra; Sections 13, 14(3) and 15 (4) of the 1999 Nigerian Constitution, which provide:

Section 13
It shall be the duty and responsibility of all organs of government, and of all authorities and persons, exercising legislative, executive or judicial powers, to conform to, observe and apply the provisions of this Chapter of this constitution.

Section 14(3)
The composition of the Government of the Federation or any of its agencies and the conduct of its affairs shall be carried out in such a manner as to reflect the federal character of Nigeria and the need to promote national unity, and also to command national loyalty, thereby ensuring that there shall be no predominance of persons from a few States or from a few ethnic or other sectional groups in that Government or in any of its agencies.

Section 15(4)
The State shall foster a feeling of belonging and of involvement among the various peoples of the Federation, to the end that loyalty to the nation shall override sectional loyalties.
In Section 1(1), the 1999 Nigerian Constitution, without mincing words, states that:

“This Constitution is supreme and its provisions (including the ones on federal character or Zoning) shall have binding force on all authorities and persons (including political parties and their members) throughout the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”(The words in brackets supplied)

The 1999 Nigerian constitution is a Constitution founded on the Policy of Zoning. In Section 4 of the Constitution, legislative powers are zoned to the Legislature. In Section 5, executive powers are zoned to the Executive. In Section 6, Judicial powers are zoned to the Judiciary, in such a way that a member of one cannot be a member of the other at one and the same time. This is unlike, for example, the Constitution of Britain.

One of the strongest points of federalism is the zoning of powers between the Federal Government and its component States: See Exclusive Legislative List and the Concurrent Legislative List contained in the Second Schedule to the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999.

I submit that the arguments against zoning or rotation are merely of temporal and auspicious convenience lacking in bona fides. They are officious and obsequious; deceptive, emotional and selfish.

Pretentious and hypocritical, and of no legal basis. The Nigerian Federation is a federation of zones (call them States if you like). Before the advent of state creations, they were called Regions: See Section 2(2) of the 1999 Constitution, which provides:

Nigeria shall be a Federation consisting of States and a Federal Capital Territory.

I submit that the Federal Republic of Nigeria is a State based on the principles of democracy and social justice: See Section 14(1) of the 1999 Nigerian Constitution. The Nigerian democracy is a political party democracy based on the provisions of the Nigerian Constitution. Thus, in Nigeria’s demo-cracy, it is the political party that contests elections and not the candidates: See Section 221 of the Constitution:

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