The immediate past secretary general of the Arewa Consultative Forum, ACF, Anthony Sani was not convinced of Governor El-Rufai’s sincerity in his call for a Southern President in the next general election.
He said, “Governor El-Rufai has the constitutional right to express his opinion on any issues of national importance including the right to change his mind when circumstances demand him to. You will recall that he once held the view that it was time to jettison politics of identity in favour of embracing meritocracy. And if circumstance has made him to change his views, that is his constitutional right.
“I think the issue is not so much as to whether the Presidency should be rotated between the North and the South as to the absence of national consensus binding on political parties, considering that our multiparty democracy allows the political parties the exclusive right to field candidates for elective offices.
That is why we would not be tired of saying that proponents of politics of identity are left with the option of either to cause the national consensus on rotation of the president among regions or zones, or design their winning game plans for their preferences within our multiparty democracy.