2027: Zoning Sacrosanct In Nasarawa

The existing power rotation arrangement in Nasarawa State has helped in entrenching fairness, unity, inclusion, peace and stability in the state political system.

This is the position of the chairman of the state chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Dr Aliyu Bello.

Bello, who was returned as the party’s helmsman in the state during the just-concluded congress, said the vision of the state’s founding fathers to alternate power across the zones has been of immense political advantage to the multi-ethnic and religious state.

He noted that the governing party has drawn from the Nigeria experience of power rotation with the understanding that for democracy to thrive anywhere, it must adapt to the political realities of its environment.

“That is why we are reechoing the position of amiable Governor, Abdullahi Sule that zoning must continue as an integral part of our political development,” he asserted.

He said as a product of zoning, Governor Sule appreciates the fact that power sharing gives every part a sense of belonging and its attendant peace and unity in the polity.

He said without rotation the Akwanga zone which has only three local government areas would not have been able to produce a governor.

Going memory lane, Dr Bello said in the run up to the election that produced the state’s first civilian governor, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, there was a consensus that the Southern zone that produced the state capital should not contest for the governorship seat.

“Other zones contested but Adamu won and held on for eight years. When he was leaving, it was the people of the south, led by the late Emir, that went and begged Adamu to zone the governorship to the south. And Adamu came back here and said, okay, I am finishing, nobody from the Keffi zone will contest.

“However, people from the Northern zone like Labara Maku, Solomon Ewuga and others contested. But the majority always has their way, and that was what brought Aliyu Akwe Doma, whose administration got shot by somebody from the same zone, Umaru Tanko Al-Makura. After Al-Makura’s eight years, he ensured that someone from the Akwanga zone emerged despite having just three local government areas in the spirit of equity and fair play. So Engineer A.A Sule is standing by the precedent that he met on ground. He didn’t create it, and he wants to continue with that. So nobody will fault him; and we in the party are giving him 100% support,” he explained.