Senator Ibrahim Shekarau’
Former Kano State governor, Ibrahim Shekarau, said yesterday there was nothing wrong if a Nigerian from the southern region succeeds President Muhammadu Buhari in 2023.
The issue of which region of the country produces Buhari’s successor in 2023 had been a source of controversy among stakeholders in the polity, especially northern and southern governors.
While the southern governors insist that the Presidency must come to the south in 2023, their northern counterparts quarreled with the use of the word ‘’must’’ in their clamour, thus faulting their approach.
But speaking in an interview on Channels Television’s breakfast programme, Sunrise Daily, yesterday, Shekarau asked his party, the All Progressives Congress, APC, to zone the presidency to the South.
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According to him, rotating the office of the President between the North and South will give citizens the sense of belonging necessary for the development of the nation.
He said: “I have said it before (that) as far as the party I belong to is concerned – the APC, my proposal is that now that President Buhari is from the northern part of the country, he has done his eight years, let’s beam the searchlight to the southern part of Nigeria.
“Not because we don’t have enough competent people up North. If you say ‘let the other part of Nigeria produce the leader,’ that does not mean you are throwing to the dogs the issue of competence, the issue of credibility, and so on.
“While I agree we should go for the best and, therefore, throw it open regardless of which side of the country, we should also be mindful of aspect of the sense of belonging. You see, we must be mindful of the perception to give some sense of belonging to every part of Nigeria.”
“I subscribe to the view that we should be talking of the North and South, but where I disagree with the southern governors is coming together to gang up and say ‘it must be’; I think this is purely the party affairs,” said Shekarau, who shares the same view with the northern governors.
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