The race for 2023 governorship is gathering momentum in Taraba State as aspirants for the top political office in the state are beginning to come out of their political cocoons. Assistant Editor, ‘Dare Odufowokan, reports that a fierce debate over which of the three senatorial districts of the state should produce the next governor is generating tension within the two leading political parties in the state.
As politicians in Taraba State intensify preparations for the 2023 geenral elections, the atmosphere across the northeastern state is tense, especially concerning the forthcoming governorship contest, as more and more intrigues and factors emerge daily to determine the fate of some of the gladiators. And the situation is the same in the two major parties in the state, namely the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the opposition All Progressive Congress (APC).
The Nation gathered that an alleged zoning arrangement that has been observed in the state since 1999 in determining which of the three zones produces the governor, is at the centre of the tension currently gripping chieftains of the two leading political parties in Taraba State. “While there are about a dozen political parties preparing for the 2023 gubernatorial contest in the state, it is actually within the PDP and the APC that you can feel and understand how important the zoning debate is,” Abubakar Lau, the state’s coordinator of Coalition for Democracy (CFD) said.
According to the pro-democracy activist, both the ruling PDP and the opposition APC are conscious of the ongoing debate about zoning and none of the two is willing to make any mistake regarding the agitations of the people of the various zones. “For a state that has been governed by the PDP since 1999, and with the APC determined to build on its recent successes and make appreciable inroads in 2023, the cautions being exhibited by the two parties is understandable. It is obvious that this zoning is one of the factors that will determine where the pendulum will swing in 2023 here in Taraba State and only an unserious political party will handle such an issue carelessly,” he said.
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Sources within the state told our reporter that with all the three senatorial district having tasted the governorship seat, the raging arguments now are in two folds. “We have those who insist that there has never been a zoning arrangement in the state and governors of the state have always emerged in open contests while there are those who say it is the zoning arrangement that ensured that all the three districts tasted the governorship between 1999 and today. This is just as a fresh debate on where the zoning arrangement should continue for is now raging,” a source said.
The Nation gathered that as the various governorship spirants across the states in the various political parties, especially the PDP and the APC warm up for the electoral contest, many of them are not oblivious of the role the zoning debate will have on their aspirations. “Many of them are still bidding their time about declaring their ambitions publicly or making some political moves because they want to see what their various political parties will decide concerning zoning. Whatever the PDP and the APC come up with concerning the agitations for zoning will determine the aspirations of many of the current contenders and they all know that for certain,” Lau said.
Among those rumoured to be waiting for their parties’ position on the zoning agitation in their bid to rule the state come 2023 are the current representative of Taraba South in the senate, Senator Emmanuel Bwacha, Speaker of the state assembly, Joseph Kunni, Dr. Anthony Manzo, David Sabo Kente, Minister of Power, Saleh Mamman, Bala Kona and Senator Yusuf Abu Yusuf of Taraba Central, among others. Many of these aspirants are yet to make categorical statements on their ambitions largely due to the ongoing zoning debate. As we speak, neither the PDP not the APC has given any idea of what they plan to do as regards zoning the 2023 governorship tickets.
The clamour for zoning
The Taraba State PDP chairman, Lt. Col. Kefas Agbu (rtd) recently hinted that the party will maintain a zoning arrangement in choosing its governorship candidate in 2023. While some prominent chieftains of the party in the state has faulted the statement credited to Agbu, claiming the party boss spoke for himself, some other PDP bigwigs in the state have supported his position, saying the state has a zoning arrangement in place since 1999 and the ruling PDP is not about to do away with the rotation principle.
“Whatever is agreed by the party will be followed for our candidate to emerge. Remember, I am a product of zoning. It is zoning that brought me here. So I don’t think there’s anything that changed, I am not aware. Even with the zoning, we want the best person to emerge. Once we have the best candidate our people will vote for us. In 2015, it was an opened opportunity for everybody from southern Taraba State to indicate interest and I declared mine. At the long run, the right candidate which is the present governor, won.
“It’s what the people want and that is right that will be done and no candidate will be imposed on the people. Our priority is to focus on the growth of the party, study the environment and know the right approach to handle any form of challenges facing the PDP in Taraba State. My focus also includes uniting the party ahead of the forthcoming election. The task they gave me as the party chairman is to win elections and I can tell you we will give Taraba the best candidate and retain Taraba for the PDP,” he said.
”It is self-serving for those opposing zoning. They want the south produce the governor again in 2023 which will never come to pass. They want the southern zone to exercise power for another eight years after Governor Ishaku leaves in 2023 with the possibility of making it a total of 16 years that the southern zone will be in power at a stretch. And the northern zone would have waited for more than twenty years to produce the governor of the state again. That is not equity and it will be resisted,” a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) said.
The Nation also learnt that Governor Dariu Ishaku is a staunch supporter of the zoning principle. While he is yet to reveal who his preferred candidate is, the governor has not left anyone in doubt of his resolve not to support any candidate from the same Taraba South senatorial district as himself in 2023. “The governor strongly believes his own senatorial district should be exempted from the 2023 governorship race. He believes in the zoning arrangement and will want the party to abide with it,” an aide told The Nation on phone.
Perhaps to reinforce this position, the Governor allegedly aided the election of Col Agbu (rtd) from southern zone as party chairman. Many observers of the politics of the state say Agbu’s emergence as party chairman effectively sealed the hopes of any aspirant from the southern senatorial zone from clinching the PDP governorship ticket. The argument is that there cannot possibly be a situation where the zone that produce the state party chairman should also present one of its own as governorship candidate of the party.
On Wednesday, a group, Coalition for Equity and Democracy, insisted on zoning arrangement in the state which according to them has shaped political firmament of the State. Addressing a press conference in Jalingo, the state capital, the leader of the group, Engr. Ahmed Bape, said “For those who like to attack the word “zoning” when it suits them, perhaps “rotation” would serve better. We must not destroy or disrupt a system which has, to a very large extent, given us uncommon stability, peace and harmony in Taraba State.
“In practical terms, the zoning arrangement has worked in Taraba and the people of our dear state want the system to continue. We urge the political class to avoid doing anything that will disrupt the arrangement. Jolly Nyame from the northern zone first took the mantle after which the late Danbaba Suntai from the central zone took over and now incumbent Darius Ishaku from the south. The zoning arrangement has been observed by the PDP which has been in power since the coming of civilian rule in 1999,” he said.
Bape urged all political parties in the state to go back to the northern zone in choosing their candidates in recognition of the zoning principle. According to him, any political party that does otherwise will be rejected by the voters. “The simple thing to do in order to ensure the continuity of the political brotherliness and relative peace in the politics of Taraba state since 1999 is for the governorship to return to Taraba North senatorial zone. Since all the three zones have tasted the seat, let us start the rotation all over again,” he said.
Arrangement in dispute
Within the opposition All Progressive Congress Party (APC), analysts argue the clamour for power to shift appears not so pronounced. Observers say this may be because the party has not been in power in Taraba State before. But there are chieftains of the party, especially from the north and central zones, who are supporting the clamour for power shift based on what they described as the existing power sharing formula in the state since 1999. To them, the southern senatorial district should excuse itself from the race.
Expectedly, many aspirants from the north and central zones are seeking the ticket of the opposition party. But their southern counterparts are not deterred by the zoning debate. Instead, the likes of David Sabo Kente, Danladi Kifasi and Ezekiel Afukunyo have remained in the race. A twist has been introduced into the arguments by these aspirants and their supporters to justify why the opposition APC should ensure that its governorship candidate emerges from the southern senatorial district, come 2023 in the spirit of equity, justice and fairness.
Claiming the need for APC to also apply the principle of zoning in deciding the party’s gubernatorial candidate, a former deputy governor of the state said “APC cannot ignore zoning issue. Even our chieftains in Taraba south are now saying since previous APC governorship candidates had emerged from the northern zone, the next candidate of the party should come from the southern zone. They want the zone to be given the chances of producing the APC candidate for fairness within the party. So, it is an issue we are looking at.”
For Senator Emmanuel Bwacha, representing Taraba South in the national assembly, the clamour for power shift is no reason for him to dump his governorship ambition. Responding to a question on whether his intention to contest the 2023 governorship elections was not against the power sharing arrangement in the state, he argued that since all the three zones of the state had had the opportunity to produce the governor of the state at one time or the other, the contest should be thrown open to all the zones to participate.
Bwacha argued further that if the alleged zoning was to be continued, it should start from the last zone that produced the current governor and gradually rotate back to where it started from. By implication, the Senator, who recently dumped the ruling PDP in the state for the opposition APC, is saying that the northern and central zones should hold on while Taraba South should continue in office after Ishaku. It is after this that the central zone and then the northern zone will take their turns.
With clear disregard for the controversial zoning agreement, the Fulani Youth Group in Taraba state has urged the Senator Bwacha, to contest for the governorship of the state come 2023. Leader of the group, Abdulrazak Mahmud, told journalists during an interaction in Jalingo that they are joining other like minds in the state to call on the Senator to contest for the governorship seat of Taraba state in 2023 because of his outstanding leadership qualities. Mahmud insists that competence, and not zoning should determine the next governor of the state.
He said, “In Bwacha, we see a worthy leader with experience, human kindness and a deep knowledge of power politics. Hence our appeal is for him to contest the governorship seat of Taraba state in 2023 because Bwacha is detribalised and has the ability to move Taraba to an enviable status. Our goal as a group, is to campaign, sensitsze, advocate, organise and mobilise not less than 50,000 Hausa-Fulani across Taraba state to vote come 2023.” The youth leader added that the people of Taraba are ready to ignore the clamour for rotation and elect the best man to govern the state.