Samuel Ortom, the governor of Benue State has said that the North has not gotten any Democratic dividends in president Muhammadu Buhari’s regime.
He said that zoning of political offices to any part of the country is actually not the country’s problem.
Speaking while answering questions from journalists in Makurdi shortly after he returned from his party’s meeting in Abuja, he said: “Is zoning the problem of Nigeria? I have always said that zoning is good but it’s the cause of the marginalisation of our people and the cause of the poverty. Beyond that, America where we borrowed the presidential system of government from, you will recall that they don’t do zoning. George Bush was president of America. At a point, two of his sons were governors and one of his sons became president of that country.
“So, it doesn’t matter. You look for the best and that is where we are getting to 20 years after this current experience. Some of us are also looking at where we will look for credibility. We will be objective to get somebody who will lead us at the party level and even at the presidential level. I think this is the thinking of all Nigerians,” he said.
He noted that arising from the recent challenge occasioned by divergent views of governors from southern and northern parts of the country, Nigerians are saying, that zoning isn’t the problem of the country.
According to him, “We should look for the best, somebody who can deliver. Yes, from Goodluck Jonathan, we zoned to the north and President Buhari is there, are we getting the dividends of democracy? Has the country been secured? Have we been able to improve on the economy of this country? Have we been able to improve in education or in infrastructure? That is the problem.
“So, you just find zoning and do micro zoning and go to look for a stooge who doesn’t have much to add value to the development of the country. But I think that nobody is against what we have done. We all accepted it and we are working towards it and by the grace of God, PDP is good to go because the entire country is waiting for the PDP to provide leadership.
“Yes, we made some mistakes in the past until 2015. But now, PDP has apologised and we are willing to move forward from there and by the grace of God, we will get there.”
