Nigeria’s northcentral Kogi state governor Alhaji Yahaya Bello on Friday kicked against any form of zoning arrangement for the office of the country’s President, describing it as unconstitutional.
Governor Bello who stated this at an interactive session with journalists is demanding that political parties in the West African country do not limit the choices of citizens and allow them choose the best hands for the job.
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According to the governor if zoning has been the bane of Nigeria’s problems, former Presidents such as Olusegun Obasanjo, Musa Yar’Adua, Goodluck Jonathan and current president Muhammadu Buhari should have solved the issues facing the southern and northern regions.
“Nigeria deserves the best. Nigeria is a ship or a flight that requires the best captain to steer or lead the affairs to the desired destination,” he said.
“There’s been rotation from PDP almost all this while and what has been our result between then and now.
“If zoning will solve our problem as at the time Olusegun Obasanjo was the president two terms, all the problems of the south sould have been solved.
“As at the Musa Yar’Adua came on board, the whole problem of the north should have been solved or when it returned back to the south south, the problem of the riverine, the niger delta or the whole of the south south should have been solved.
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“Now we have Muhammadu Buhari, the problem of the whole north should have been solved and I’m not saying all these leaders have not done their best.”
Only recently, governors of Nigeria’s southern states converged on Lagos state and in a communique demanded that 2023 presidency be zoned to the south.
Governor Bello thinks the move is unconstitutional.
“Democracy is all about free choice and about the number, so let the majority choose whomever they want, let political parties not limit Nigerians to who they want to elect into offices.
“It’s unconstitutional, not in our own party the APC and it’s not in the constitution if the federal republic of Nigeria. We can’t be picking and choosing when it suits us.
“If we should continue on this sentiments of rotation of presidency to this region, I say let’s do it perfectly in the interest of equity, fairness and justice. Let’s go back to 1960 when Nigeria got independence, all the leaders we’ve had at national level, you’ll discover that all other geopolitical zones as it exists today have at one time or the other held the position of the president or vice president.
“If we should go by that, then the Northcentral has been largely shortchanged, then let’s focus our attention on north central.
“Then if we should take it from 1999 then you’re talking about north central and southeast but I continue to insist on let the best candidates emerge.”