Aliyu urges Niger politicians to respect zoning formula

NIGER State Governor Muazu Babangida Aliyu has told politicians angling for elective positions in the next political dispensation in the state to respect the zoning arrangement put together for the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the state.

Aliyu also told politicians holding nocturnal meetings ahead of the 2015 elections in the state to have the belief that it is only God that can give positions to people.

The governor’s advice came two months after he expressed fears over the way and manner politicians were going about heating the system in their quests for public office in 2015, saying they were creating problems for themselves where there was none.

The governor was particularly referring to the series of attacks, in the last one week, on some public officers in the state by politicians from the same political parties and the opposition politicians seeking public office in the next dispensation, saying these groups of people are already making 2015 to get tough and are heating up the polity.

It was learnt that there has been secret meetings by political actors in the state ahead of 2015 on how to wrestle power from the PDP-led government not minding the zoning arrangement within the party. Aliyu believed what should be paramount to public office holders now was how to deliver dividend of democracy to the people.

Speaking at the inauguration of the Committee for the Realisation of the University of Education in the state, Aliyu said the activities of some political office holders and politicians in recent times had become ‘an unnecessary distraction’.

According to him, “we should support the zoning formula, it is our own internal arrangement and people should not overheat the polity.”

The governor reminded the people that the political peace the state being witnessed since the return to democratic rule in Nigeria was the result of the zoning arrangement which he said had reduced unnecessary acrimony in the race for political offices.