Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti has said that he was one of those who supported Ali Modu Sheriff to become chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) but that it admitted it was a wrong decision.
Daily Post reports that Fayose was a guest on FOCUS NIGERIA, a live political programme on AIT, where he spoke about the chairmanship problems in the party.
Fayose reveals why Sheriff was rejected
The Ekiti governor said they were not against respecting the rule of law bur that Sheriff was incompetent and therefore was rejected as the chairman of the party.
Sheriff was declared as chairman by an Appeal Court in Port Harcourt although this was rejected by the Senator Ahmed Makarfi-led faction of the PDP.
Fayose said zoning was not sacrosanct as it was not in the constitution but just a gentleman’s agreement.
He said: “In politics, what you say today; circumstances can change it tomorrow. The reason is this; a minute is too long in politics. So many things can happen in politics. Nothing changes the party but it is the individuals in the party that makes things happen.
“In a political situation like this; when you say it will happen this way circumstance can change it. So nothing is sacrosanct in politics.
“Let me say to you, if we got it wrong at first, we would have had another opportunity to get it right had the Port-Harcourt convention held last year, which could have produced a South-Western as national chairman of the party.
“These days, nobody has the right to zone any office to a particular geopolitical zone. Zoning is not in the constitution, Zoning is just a gentleman’s agreement that leadership should be rotational.
“If President Jonathan had allowed somebody in the North to contest for presidency under the PDP, President Buhari would not have had a field day in the North. Zoning is just common sense and morally right but it is not in the constitution of the party or the constitution of Nigeria.
“There are three ingredients that produce tomorrow in politics. They are the people, the party, and the candidate. I want to tell you the people component is the most important. Makarfi has the people of the party behind him.
“The amount of stalwarts that turned-up for the Makarfi stakeholders meeting shows you where the people are in the party.
“The PDP was founded on some many interests – the minority, the majority, everybody – it is an all-inclusive party that has a good spread. It is like a sleeping lion. So, anybody that is playing to the gallery or playing games with us should remember that what goes around will come around.
“Again let me tell you Ali Modu Sheriff joined PDP after a while. He will not say he is a founding member of the PDP. We will not abandon PDP to Sheriff or anybody. We will take the whole matter to a logical conclusion for posterity sake.
