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A crucial meeting
of the national caucus of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) holds
today in Abuja to decide the zoning of its chairmanship position ahead
of the party’s two-day national convention which begins in the federal
capital on Friday.

Those expected at
the meeting include all members of the national executive committees,
national working committee, chairmen of the party in the 36 states of
the federation, state governors elected on the party’s platform and
members of the Board of Trustees (BOT).

The big contenders

They are also to discuss the possibility of scaling down the number of the candidates gunning for the party’s top seat.

There are already
five candidates with two from the north and the remaining four from the
southern part of the country. Those from the north are the party’s
chairman, Board of Trustees, Gambo Magaji (Gombe) and the national
deputy chairman (north) Yusufu Musa (Plateau).

The others from
the south are former governor of Edo State, John Odigie-Oyegun (Edo);
the incumbent national publicity secretary, Emma Eneukwu (Enugu);
former national secretary, George Moghalu (Anambra) and billionaire
businessman, Harry Akande (Oyo).

It was gathered
that the caucus will consider the quest by some members of the party to
zone the chairmanship position to the north thereby paving the way for
only the two aspirants from the north to slug it out or for one of them
to step down.

Some party top
members are said to dis-satisfied with the state of the party in the
last 10 years, especially since the chairmanship of the party shifted
to the south. They claim in particular that since the emergence of Don
Etiebet as national chairman, ANPP has been having problems which,
according to them, resulted in the unpopularity of the party and its
reduction of the number of states it controls.

Apart from Mr
Etiebet, from Akwa Ibom State, the other southerner who has occupied
the post is the incumbent, Edwin Ume-Ezeoke, from Anambra State.

Former chairmen
from the north have been Mahmud Waziri and Yusuf Ali. Former Zamfara
Governor, Ahmad Sani and Alani Bankole, at some point, acted as
national caretaker committee chairman and acting chairman, respectively.

It was learnt that
the issue of returning the chairmanship of the party from the south to
the north is already tearing the party apart.

The plot to return
the party’s topmost seat to the north is meant to take advantage of the
problem of zoning in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), especially if
President Goodluck Jonathan decides to contest.

“If you read
Jonathan’s lips you know he is contesting the presidential elections
and so we must take advantage of this problem of zoning in PDP,” the
source said. Already, one of the aspirants, Mr Magaji is making zoning
a campaign issue. He said ANPP has been wasted since its chairmanship
was ceded to the south and recalled that in 1999, the party controlled
nine states in the north and a sizeable number of senators and members
of the House of Representatives from the South-South and the South-East
geo-political zones.

Also, a group of
party members, which calls itself “ANPP Grassroots Members” has vowed
to destabilise the party if zoning, especially as it relates to the
office of the national chairman, is not removed or adjusted before the
convention.

A divided house

In the unsigned
protest letter to Mr Ume-Ezeoke yesterday, the group said it was tired
of zoning policy that has been producing national chairmen that
“exchange the interest of the party for peanut or bargained it for
their wives and children.” It argued that if the quest for the ANPP to
oust PDP is to become a reality, the zoning policy which favours the
south to produce the national chairman should be adjusted.

When contacted,
the spokesman of the party, Mr Eneukwu, who is also a chairmanship
contender, said he couldn’t speak because he was in a meeting. He,
however, confirmed that he was still in the race.

The National Director of Publicity of the party, Sabo Muhammad did
not to pick calls made to his telephone and was said to be attending a
meeting when a reporter visited his office.