The Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), the umbrella association for northern elites, has distanced itself from a recent statement credited to the governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai, on the 2023 presidency, saying the governor only expressed his views.
Governor El-Rufai had on Monday joined the debate on the 2023 presidency, saying it should go to Nigeria’s southern region to deepen democracy and balance of power among the regions.
El-Rufai noted that it was an issue of national consensus that power should rotate among the regions of the country, and that after eight years of the current President Muhammadu Buhari, the presidency should go back to the south.
Although he observed that unlike the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) has not adopted zoning of the presidency in its constitution, he expressed belief that the party would still respect rotation of power.
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“The Northern APC will have to sit down and endorse someone, most likely someone from the south, because after eight years of Buhari, I don’t think the presidency should remain in the north unless there is some extenuating circumstances. But all things being equal, we will honour our agreement and we keep our words.”
But the ACF Secretary General, Anthony Sani, in a message to THE WHISTLER, said El-Rufai was only expressing his opinion on the 2023 presidency, insisting that the matter would have to be resolved through a national consensus.
In a veiled reference to the omission of zoning in the APC Constitution, Sani said unless there was a zoning agreement or a law making rotation of the presidency mandatory, it would be futile for anyone to argue that the presidency be given to any zone.
He said: Governor El-Rufai’s suggestion on this issue is not more than his personal opinion which you know is not binding on all our political parties. Whether this suggestion is good or not is not important precisely because it has no backing of force of law or of national consensus.
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“This is because democracy is a practice whereby majority holds sway. The position taken by majority is deemed to be fair.
“In the absence of national consensus or law on politics of identity symbolized by zoning and rotation of the position of president that is binding on political parties which are the organs to present candidates for elections in our nascent multi-party democracy, any position by anybody on which zone to produce the president come 2023 is foolhardy.”
We had reported that the APC may not allow power shift in 2023 if the opposition PDP zones its presidential ticket to the south.
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