Peoples Democratic Party may zone its national chairmanship position to the Southwest, The PUNCH has learnt.

The recommendation to zone the position to the Southwest was contained in a leaked working document prepared by the party’s 44-member National Convention Committee on Zoning.

The committee recommended the position of secretary for the North in the document was sighted by our correspondent on Wednesday.

The committee chaired by the Enugu State Governor, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, will meet on Thursday (today).

According to the document, the main consideration is that the zone has not produced the party’s national chairman since inception.

In zeroing in on the Southwest, members considered the past distribution pattern of the geopolitical zones that produced chairmen and came to the conclusion that the Southwest deserved to get the slot.

Apart from the past distribution pattern, members were said to have noted that before the emergence of Uche Secondus as the national chairman, no fewer than 12 members from the Southwest aspired to lead the party before it was taken to the Southsouth.

The distribution pattern as considered by the party is that the Northcentral has produced five past chairmen in persons of Solomon Lar, Barnabas Gemade, Audu Ogbeh, Ahmadu Ali and Kawu Baraje; while the Northeast has produced three chairmen in persons of Bamanga Tukur, Adamu Muazu and Ali Modu Sheriff.

The Northwest produced two – Haliru Bello and Ahmed Makarfi; the Southeast produced two – Vincent Ogbulafor and Okwesilieze Nwodo; while the Southsouth produced Secondus both as acting and as substantive chairman.

“It is now clearly seen that the national chairmanship position has stayed long in the North, and particularly dominant in the Northcentral. The Southwest had never been given the opportunity.

“In actual fact, it is was an issue generally acknowledged that the national chairmanship was aspired by no fewer than 12 aspirants from Southwest before the twist that took it to the Southsouth,” the document read.

Punch