North scheme to retain presidency post 2023
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9By James Madaki
There are strong indications that Northern politicians are already plotting the retention of the presidency in the North, after the eight year tenure of President Mohammadu Buhari in 2023.
A source, who is privy to the plan informed Peesreporters.com that those behind the plan were of the opinion that the years spent in office by presidents from the southern extraction must be equalled by the North after which the issue of zoning would be finally consigned to the dustbin of history.
They placed the collapse of the zoning arrangement between the North and South at the door step of former President Goodluck Jonathan, whom they argued, ensured the death and burial of the zoning arrangement which kicked off in 1999, by contesting the presidency after the demise of his late boss, Dr Umaru Yar’Adua.
They argued that by refusing to relinquish office after the expiration of the joint ticket between Jonathan and Yar’Adua, the South had, by that action, nailed the coffin of the zoning agreement between the two zones.
The source disclosed further that “if the contest by Jonathan in 2011 was tolerated because of the exigencies of that moment, his decision to seek re-election to the detriment of northern interest, was the last straw that broke the camel’s back and that was the more reason why the 2011 contest assumed ethnic and religious dimensions which pitched the North against the South.
It was also revealed that, the established northern oligarch got wind of alleged plan by the Jonathan-led presidency to move against the domineering influence of the North in the running of the country, particularly, its restructuring agenda via the Constitution Conference.
“The consensus among some pro government leaders in the North is the unwritten agreement that since the South, through Chief Olusegun Obasanjo and Dr Goodluck Jonathan had governed the country for over 14 years, and the North is just about finishing its first term of four years, with a possibility of another four years through President Buhari till 2023, making a total of 10 years plus the two years of Yar’Adua, it was therefore, not out of place for the North to have another shot at the presidency after 2023 to equal the years spent by the two southern presidents.
” For equity, fairness and justice, the North should be allowed in office for 14 years and that can only be achieved by the retention of the presidency in the North after the current occupant”, the source stressed.
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