The Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, has called on the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, to respect its zoning agreement ahead of the 2023 general election.
Recall that there have been calls by various individuals and groups for the APC and the main opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, to zone their 2023 presidential tickets to the South.
Fashola, while speaking to newsmen in Abuja on Tuesday, said that although the issue of zoning was more of gentlemen’s agreements, it behooves on parties who entered into such agreements to honour them.
Admitting however, that Nigeria’s1999 Constitution (as amended) does not support zoning; the former governor of Lagos State said, “First let’s talk about law, let’s talk about agreement, the law is the Constitution. The Constitution decides the age at which you can contest certain offices and there is nothing in the Constitution that says zoning.
“All are political parties, political parties are clubs where you write agreements, just like a social club and we can decide that it is the youngest person who will be the Chairman of the Club or we can decide that it is the oldest person or the next female or the next male, that is the matter of agreement between people.
“But the Constitution that sets up the climate of political parties’ formation does not prescribe zoning. The truth is that what makes an agreement specification is the honour in which it is made, not whether it is written. If it was written there would be nocCourt cases of breach of contract because it’s a document that is written and signed that goes to court.
“But the private agreement you make with your brother and sister can be breached, (it) is honour.”
