2023: CSOs warn against jettisoning zoning in C’River

A coalition of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) under the auspices of Cross River State Indigenous Groups (CRSIG) has warned that any attempt to truncate the zoning arrangement already in place will spell doom for the state. 

Addressing a press conference yesterday in Abuja, the convener of the group, Mr. Paul Obi, said some political gladiators were attempting to tinker with the zoning arrangement.

The coalition urged parties to strictly adhere to and implement the power-sharing policy by ensuring that the governorship of the state in 2023 is zoned to the southern senatorial district.

He warned the two major parties, APC and PDP, against jettisoning the zoning arrangement, saying it is capable of derailing the political stability enjoyed in the state in the past 23 years.

According to him, citizens and voters alike in the state have embraced the zoning principle as an unbridgeable hallmark of democracy which, he said, was a give-and-take ideology as opposed to winner-takes-all politics.

“At the triumphant return of democracy in 1999, the governorship of the state was opened to all the three senatorial districts of South, North and Central. 

“Mr Donald Duke from the South and members of the PDP set the template for an equitable power-sharing formula for two terms of eight years per senatorial district,” he said.

“Senator Liyel Imoke took over in 2007 after Duke’s eight years and concluded his tenure in 2015. Governor Benedict Ayade took over in 2015 and is expected he concludes his eight years tenure in 2023.

“Let every political party, especially the APC and PDP be warned of the consequences of dispensing with the entitlements of any senatorial district in Cross River State in adhering to equitable distribution of power among the three senatorial districts,” Obi said.

He recalled that just as it played out in 1999 when Dr. Eyo Etim Eyong of the Southern Senatorial District candidature in the then APP was neglected in favor of late Engr. Mark Ukpo candidature of Northern Senatorial District.

He said, “This action contradicted the famous 1980 Ogoja-Calabar Accord and the average understanding on the rotation of power then, given that Mr Clement Ebri having served as Governor from Ogoja zone now made up of Central and Northern Senatorial Districts, it was morally binding for the South to produce the Governor.

“The consequences of these actions and events led to the revolt by the entire seven local government areas in the Southern Senatorial District, that voted en masse, with sympathy votes from the Central and North Senatorial Districts that gave victory to Mr Donald Duke of the PDP, even when APP was majority party and PDP a minority party in Cross River State.”