Professor Ango Abdullahi, the head of the Northern Elders Forum (NEF), has asked the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to drop the debate on zoning the presidency to a certain region.
He stated this on Thursday during a courtesy visit to his villa in Zarai, Kaduna State, by the leadership of the Coalition of Northern Groups (CNG).
The elder statesman encouraged the PDP and other political parties grappling with zoning or power shift issues to drop the topic and focus on finding qualified candidates.
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Abdullahi stated that presidential candidates should be able to run for office based on their qualifications rather than their origins, and that the problem of zoning or power shift is dead on arrival.
The NEF leader disclosed that over 11 presidential aspirants who cut across various political parties have consulted him regarding their presidential ambitions.
“The issue of zoning or power shift is dead and buried, candidates should be allowed to contest election on the basis of merit of their competence and not where they come from, hence the Northern elders’ forum is of the opinion that the presidential position should be left open for standard norms of the democratic process,” he said.
Abdullahi also revealed the process which led to the consensus that produced former senate president, Bukola Saraki and governor Bala Mohammed of Bauchi State as the northern consensus candidate for the Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP).
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He said: “They met the former military head of state, Ibrahim Babangida and told him they had concluded consultations on possible consensus candidates but failed to arrive at one person and requested him to assist and he called me and a few others.
“The aspirants insisted on us choosing from among them but we told them it was not possible, so we consulted elders from across the North West, North Central and North East before Aminu Tambuwal and Atiku Abubakar withdrew from the process.
“All elders voted for first and second choice. Saraki and Mohammed tied and both of them were asked to either pick one among themselves or do further consultation on the best among them and our recommendation was signed by me as Ango Abdullahi and not on behalf of NEF, a position I made very clear at a press conference I addressed in Minna”.
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