2023: S’East can’t produce President –Sen. Ibrahim

TRACKING____Against the recent statement by the Kaduna State Governor, Mallam El- Rufai that the South should produce the next president of the country come 2023, the Chairman of the Arewa Youths Consultative Forum, Shettima Yerima, has said the governor is on his own.

This came just as Senator Abu Ibrahim said that the South-East has no basis to lay claim to producing the next president come 2023 because it put all its eggs in one basket by voting collectively for the Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP).

“I think the South-East made a lot of mistakes by going one way. Look at the South-West, it is on the ratio of 60/40. There is only one governor from the All Progressive Congress (APC) in the South-East. So for APC to say they could give it to the South-East, they cannot, unless PDP may be right to pick their candidate from the South- East. “The party (APC) will like to look at where it has strong support base and take decision.

The people of South-East should democratise the Igbo society so that it can freely make choice. I was telling my friend, the Imo State Governor, Senator Hope Uzodinma, that he should convince the South-East to be Nigerians and not to go one way.

If there is anybody that should be more Nigerians, it should be the Igbo because they are everywhere, the four-time senator, who represented Katsina South in the National Assembly, said.

On zoning, he said: “For me, I support zoning, because it allows for a better understanding of the nation. It is the kind of thing that can move us forward as a country.

As far as I am concerned, we should respect zoning and rotation of power until the country gets stabilised and matured. It will not be good to discard it now as that will create confusion and bad blood.

“Zoning was an agreement by Nigerians because of differences but it should not be made permanent. It is a system that will develop the country.” Yerima, on his part, stated that El-Rufai only spoke for himself and Kaduna State because he does not have the mandate for the entire North.

“El-Rufai is on his own. He does not have the mandate to speak for the North.

Rather, he only represents Kaduna as far as this issue or any national issue is concerned. “On whose behalf is he speaking? As far as the issue is concerned, personally, I don’t believe in rotational presidency, rather competence, but no one has the power to arrogate for himself the collective position of a people,” he said.