Governor of Kaduna state, Nasir El-Rufai has said that the next President of Nigeria should emerged from the Southern region of the country.
The Governor who said this during an interview with BBC Hausa on Saturday August 8, stressed that no northerner should succeed President Muhammadu Buhari in 2023.
El-Rufai further expressed that though the idea of rotating the presidency may not be constitutional, it is based on the country’s political arrangement.
He said;
In Nigerian politics, there is a system of rotation, in which everyone agrees that if the north rules for eight years, the south will rule for eight years.
That is why I came out and said that after President Buhari has been in office for eight years, no northerner should run for office. Let the Southerners also have eight years.
He added;
If you look at how I am, I don’t take anyone to work with me for the zone he came from. The eligibility I look at is if who is entrusted to the public will hold it properly. It has been said that I have loved the presidency since I was a minister in the FCT. This is nonsense. I do not want the Nigerian presidency. God gives power, whether you like it or not, if He wants it, He will give it to you, but I have never sought the presidency of Nigeria, no one can say I have ever sought it.
El-Rufai made his stance known after Mamman Daura, President Muhammadu Buhari’s close relative, said competence, rather than zoning, should be prioritised for government positions.
Several groups including Ohanaeze Ndigbo, apex Igbo socio-cultural group, the Middle Belt Forum, Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF), Afenifere and the South-South Elders’ Forum countered Daura’s stance to jettison zoning.
However, the pan-northern socio-political organisation, the Arewa Consultative Forum, supported Daura, saying zoning was alien to the constitution of the country.
