2023: Can We Ask The President About Zoning Brouhaha!

Buhari

President Muhammadu Buhari’s plate of challenges to address is filled to the brim. What with the slaughtering of 43 some say 70 rice farmers in Borno State whose culprits it is his responsibility to bring them to book; the abduction of over 300 Kankara schoolboys in his beloved Katsina State, that the Boko Haram Terrorists are claiming responsibility; the country’s reentrance to the recession club after exiting the club barely two years ago; and a runaway inflation of over 14 per cent according government owned, National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) among others. 

It, therefore, seems unfair when political leaders and professional politicians began to divert the President’s attention from the aforementioned onerous assignment and validate their position that there was no agreement by the leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) at its formation that power should rotate between North and South. And that eight years after the North produced President Muhammadu Buhari there was nothing wrong, unusual or unethical for another northerner to succeed him in 2023. Some Southern politicians have kicked against North retaining power in 2023, saying that there was an unwritten agreement that presidential power should rotate between North and South every eight years. 

One of the politicians who have added their voices is the former governor of Lagos State, Babatunde Fashola. Babatunde Fashola, who is also the minister of works and housing, recently said that the APC must respect its “private agreement” on the zoning of the 2023 presidency. Speaking with journalists in Abuja, Fashola addressed the zoning agreement of the APC and what the party must do to retain power in 2023. When asked about APC zoning the 2023 presidency, the former Lagos state governor said the ruling party must not breach its private agreement on which zone the presidential candidate will come from. 

“The truth is that what makes an agreement spectacular is the honour in which it is made not whether it is written. If it was written, there would be no court cases of breach of contract because it is a document that is written and signed that go to court,” he said. “But the private agreement you make with your brother and sister should not be breached, it must be honoured.” Similarly, former Rivers State governor and minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, and a host of leaders of the All Progressives Congress, APC, from the South have thrown their weight behind rotating power to the South in 2023 as canvassed by Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola. 

They said doing otherwise would hurt APC’s long term interest and the nation as well. Concurring, Amaechi, who spoke during a Channels TV programme, said the arrangement, which is usually between the North and South, should remain the same. 

However, Southern politicians position on zoning is not shared by some northern leaders. The former governor of Zamfara State, Sani Yarima, who recently declared his intention to contest for president in 2023 has categorically stated that there was no such agreement. Yarima, who represented Zamfara West Senatorial District in the National Assembly, told newsmen on Wednesday, in Abuja, that his decision to contest the election was to win and better the lives of Nigerians. The former governor decried the spate of killings and poverty in the country, saying the situation needed to be addressed. 

“You may recall that in 2006, I declared my interest to contest for Presidency after having served Zamfara State for a period of eight years. “However, I decided to withdraw for the current President at that time and since then I went to Senate for three terms. “Now that Mr President is completing his second term, I decided to try again to see what God will have for me having voluntarily decided not to go to the Senate again. He insisted that there was no agreement prior to 2015 presidential election that presidency would rotate between North and South. 

“You see, I don’t think there is anything like agreement. “You can ask Mr President, he led the group, Asiwaju was there, I was part of it. “There was no meeting I didn’t attend or any meeting that I attended that there was such agreement. “Agreement can’t be verbal, it has to be written. “In any case, any agreement that is contrary to laws of this country is not an agreement. “The Constitution is very clear, the Constitution of the political parties, the Electoral Act. We are in a democracy and democracy is governed by processes and procedures and by laws. “The Constitution of Nigeria doesn’t recognize anything called zoning and likewise, the APC’s Constitution. “If there is that agreement why didn’t we put it in the Constitution?

“So, nobody will just come and say that there is an agreement, take your Constitution and amend it, put that agreement if there is, then nobody will come from another side and work against the Constitution. “As a democrat, as a citizen of Nigeria, I can aspire based on the laws of Nigeria. “The Nigerian Constitution has given rights and privilege to every citizen which believes he has something to offer to aspire for any office, irrespective of his state of origin, his tribe, ethnicity, religion; you have right, the Constitution has given us guarantee to participate in the political process,” he said. 

The interesting part of the exchange between the journalists and Yarima was when the former Zamfara governor said that they should go and ask President Muhammadu Buhari, there was no agreement on power rotation between North and South, which is why I decided to pose the question, Can we ask the President?