 Stakeholders of Cross River Southern Senatorial District have demanded that the 2023 governorship position be zoned to the district in accordance with the Kalabao Goja Accord. Now the Accord was signed by political leaders in the state in 1980. Well joining us to discuss this is a former commissioner from Cross River State, Professor Eyo Item Nyung and we are also being joined by communications and crisis management strategist Emana Ambrose Amaui. Thank you very much gentlemen and lady for joining us. Well I'm going to start with you Professor if you can hear me. The question is of course, yes you can hear me great. The first question obviously is about the Ogoja Kalabao Accord in 1980. We hear that it was signed but then in terms of the agreement between leaders of this different zones in Cross River State on rotation of the office of governor. Was there any document that was signed or was it just a gentleman's agreement? Well I don't think people are arguing about implementing the Kalabao Goja Accord because as you may have heard before now that Accord was signed at the time when there were two senatorial districts like Ogoja and Kalabao and that Kalabao included part of a Kwaibom State now but people are relying on the spirit of that Accord, the content of that Accord that addresses the issue of equity, unity and to get on it in order to achieve progress. I think that is what people are relying on, not to implement the Accord from back in 1980. Well then of course the people who are arguing about this particular spirit of the Accord is they're all saying that it has rotated and any zone can determine or can be the next zone that will produce the governor why should it be the south being that everybody has taken their turn so we shouldn't go back to the south because this is where it started from. So if everybody has done their turn then why can't we just toss a coin and say wherever it goes let's pick a governor from there. Well let me tell you my mindset, it's actually a party decision, the political parties are the ones that fill candidates for elections. The political parties will look at their best chance of winning the election. Okay, now if you ignore a certain senatorial district, one party ignores that senatorial district and another party comes for it, out of sentiment, the people of that senatorial district will stand by the party that has come for them and when you look at the southern senatorial district, the southern senatorial district is made up of seven local governments out of a total of 18 local governments in the state. It has the highest number of local governments, it has the highest booting population in the state. Most of it is cosmopolitan, a lot of non-indigenous living in this part of the state and they enjoy the hospitality of the host communities and they will also stand by them. So it's left for the party to take the decision. So what the southern coalition are doing is just to sensitize the people and the political parties to see the reason why they should allow the governorship to come to the south. Being that the south picked up this process, it went from south to central, from central to north and by all conditions, we should come back to the south. The south has been out of power for 16 years and that is the maximum. If you do the rotation process, that will be the maximum number of years any senatorial district will be kept out of power. So for the sake of equity and fairness, as contained in the Wujia Calabar Court that you mentioned, that is how it should be. Okay, we're being joined by Emana. Emana is a member of the Cross River South Coalition and she was obviously part of that town hall meeting that happened yesterday. Emana, it's very interesting that we're talking about this zoning system and why it should go to the south. But how does zoning ensure good governance and effective delivery of democratic dividends? Because I mean, and I'm not in any way trying to talk down on any governor or anyone who's ruled the state, but we've had people from certain zones that have not necessarily delivered in terms of the dividends of good governance, so how has zoning helped? Okay, so I'd like to state that zoning meritocracy for the people who are arguing for the cause of meritocracy are not mostly exclusive because merit, you know, there is no region or there is no senatorial district in Cross River State, for instance, that holds the monopoly of knowledge. Every senatorial district, every zone has people of merit and can also posit people who can get the job done, people who are suitably qualified. So it's zoning and meritocracy are not mutually exclusive. The Cross River Declaration is agitating or advocating that the governorship be zoned back to the south, just as the other guest on the program has said, there's a lot of feedback. So I'm actually struggling to, I'm actually struggling to. Emana, if you can hear me, I know that your connection is really bad. But quickly, we know that we have two major political parties in Cross River State as we speak, as at the time where the zoning, you know, where the PDP used to be the dominant party, but of course we know what happened. The governor had moved to the APC making it now the party in power. The professor had said that this is a political party issue and so the political parties are to decide if they're going to zone or not. Now we know that the APC in itself goes mostly with consensus candidates as opposed to the PDP that holds zoning as sacred. So without the push and shove, of course, that the southern part of the state is doing, what if the APC decides not to go with the zoning formula and maybe just the PDP? Where does that leave the people who are in the south of the state that belong to that party? Okay, so Marianne, let me quickly say that those political parties, the two major political parties in Cross River State, the People's Democratic Party and the all-progressive Congress, recognize the principle of zoning and rotation. The PDP in its Constitution, Article 7, subsection 3C, provides for rotation and zoning of party and public elective offices. And for the all-progressive Congress, their Constitution in Article 25E also provides for the principle of federal character and rotation in nomination for election or appointment. So the case here now is not that either of the two parties do not recognize zoning because you said the all-progressive Congress goes with consensus candidates. You know, that's not entirely true because each election has its own unique antecedents or each election and each political party could choose to go by a friend pattern as it suits them at that time. But the Constitution of those parties recognize zoning and rotation. So what falls on the parties is to produce candidates who are suitably qualified from the South because the principle of eight has actually gone round. And for those who are saying it's gone round the three senatorial districts and it can start anywhere. Just as Professor Nyong said, it should not start anywhere for fairness, equity and justice sake. It should go back to the South where it all started so that every senatorial district can lay claim to enjoying the dividends of democracy and development. Because like I was saying before you went on break, there is no senatorial district that holds the monopoly of knowledge. Every senatorial district just like the South can produce people of merit who can sit in that governorship position. So that's the argument for the Kalabba Declaration and that's what the advocacy is all about. Great, because we're almost out of time Professor, I'll just let you have the last word. In this issue now because what I meant, I'm grateful that Emana was able to set that straight, what I meant was that of course parties have a right to choose whatever way they want to go, whether it's a consensus party candidate or they decide to go with the zoning formula. But what if this whole zoning thing or the zoning formula is jettisoned? I mean, will that affect the Southern senatorial districts negatively? You mean if it's jettisoned by both parties or by all parties? Yes. Well, it will be jettisoned by all parties. Yes, it will affect the South because we've been out of power for 16 years. We are going to add another eight years out of power to us and this is the senatorial district that is hosting the capital city of the states and handling the bulk of the population of the states and the highest voting strength. If you deny the South this opportunity by ignoring this rotation formula, then you are just a disadvantage in the South. Well, let's hope that something comes out of this, especially with the Calabar Declaration. But unfortunately, we're out of time. I want to say thank you, Professor Nyong, for being part of the conversation. Emana Ahwe, thank you so much for being here. All right, thank you very much. All right, we'll take a quick break and when we come back, we'll be saying our goodbyes. According to what I read online, it is free and fair. Although APS and PDP are like complaining that they will go to the court in order to contest the resource of the election, but to me, it is free and fair because it is the person that the people wanted that won the election. Okay, if you look at the election, I don't think there is nothing free and fair about the election because looking at the way APS has been conducting the election in this country, it's nothing to be right about. APS is so, you know, they don't even know what to do. They will give them common food. They will not be able to eat it properly, not to talk of conducting just a common election. So you can see all sorts of things. Why would they be having a conclusive election just for one state? So just imagine if they want to conduct a lecture for the whole country. That means we are in a mess in this country. That's just my own view. Yeah, actually, the Anabrasid Conducted Election was, to me, my own opinion that it was okay because actually, I was rooting for Africa to win. I was so grateful for the people coming out to vote because I thought that based on the security issue and problem here and then, so I thought that nobody would come out. But in mass, the number of voters that come out, I was so impressed. That is to show that this Nigeria, if we find the right people on this seat, people will come out to support the person. All right. We want to thank you for being part of the conversation tonight. We hope you enjoyed every bit of it. I'm Marianna Konci, tomorrow.