The Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, has said although the issue of zoning was more of gentlemen’s agreements, it behooves on parties who entered into such agreements to honour them.
Fashola, a former Governor of Lagos State and chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, said this while speaking to reporters covering the activities of the APC, in Abuja, on Tuesday.
The minister 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 no Court 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.”
He explained that the best politics was one that would enhance good governance and impact positively on the lives of most, especially the vulnerable in society.
The APC chieftain said, “I belong to a party, APC and it is committed to good governance because I think the best politics is good governance. The beauty of it for me, is the opportunity it gives to impact people’s lives. We have elections only once in four years but we have the responsibility to provide good governance every day and that’s the culture.”
While speaking on the chances of the APC to retain power in 2023, he said, “To retain power in 2023, certainly if we keep our promises, is that simple. That’s politics. If you do what you said you will do even if you don’t do 100 per cent and they see that you are making progress, they will even want you to finish something you started.”
He maintained that opposition political parties in Nigeria currently have not shown the capacity to upstage the APC.
Fashola said, “Our opposition has to think better than us in order to defeat us, right now they are not doing that. When it’s election time they should come and meet us.”
