By Igho Akeregha and Ben Ogbemudia Abuja
Debate on which region of Nigeria gets the presidency in 2023 is already heating the polity, with the heavyweights digging in. Two weeks ago, elder statesman and leader of the Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF), Chief Edwin Clark, insisted that the South-East geopolitical zone must produce the next president in 2023.
This was when former Senate President, Pius Anyim, visited to consult him on his presidential ambition on the platform of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). With about 16 months left for incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari to hand over power to his successor, the jostle for who takes his seat between the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) has lately become intense.
July 2021 saw the Southern Governors’ Forum pushing very hard that in the spirit of equity, fair play, and seamless power rotation, the return of presidential power to the South, by the time the curtain falls on the Buhari-led administration, is crucial.
Prominent political leaders from the North, including Governors Abdullahi Ganduje, Babagana Zulum and Nasir el-Rufai of Kano, Borno and Kaduna states respectively, at different times, have tacitly endorsed the idea of a president of southern extraction, but pockets of voices opposed to the idea still exist and are even becoming louder.
Intrigues as to who gets the presidential ticket of the two leading parties is also yielding betrayals and loyalty. Political analysts believe that the PDP may be walking a tight rope with the choice of its candidate. Whether it will go to the south or north remains the big question for both the PDP and the APC.
When southern governors threw their weight behind the collection of Value Added Tax (VAT) by state governments, among others, the Pandora box was opened. Irked by the position of the southern governors on the issue of VAT and demand for power shift, some elders in the North under the aegis of Northern Elders Forum (NEF) said the region would not give up the presidency to the South, insisting that it will continue to rule Nigeria.
Spokesperson of NEF, Dr Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, recently said the North was not for sale, and that northerners are not second-class citizens of Nigeria, as such the region will not accept to play second fiddle when the region has the population to vie for the top political position and win.
For many, Baba-Ahmed’s outburst about the so-called burgeoning population of the North smacks of arrogance and ethnic chauvinism because, at the slightest opportunity, analysts say the North keeps on shoving such threats at others, even though the so-called large population has not translated to human development.
On January 18, 2022, a member of the House of Representatives from Oyo State, Sina Abiola Peller, who was on a Peace Advocacy Mission to Niger State, visited former military president, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida (retd.) and reiterated the call that “everybody knows that the presidency should be in the south because if you are promoting peace, you will understand that the Yoruba community are agitating for the Yoruba nation; the Igbos are agitating for Biafra, and you have Northern Nigeria that has been in the position of the presidency for an uninterrupted eight years of two terms. You should be able to take the presidency to the south if you want peace.”
A former governor of Kano State, Rabiu Kwankwaso, argued against the call for zoning the 2023 presidential ticket of the PDP to the southern part of Nigeria.
Speaking on Channels television, Kwankwaso, a two-term governor of Kano State, condemned the insistence of the Southern Governors Forum that the next president of the country must come from the southern region, rather than what is best.
An industrialist, Sam Ohuabunwa, who spoke to ThisNigeria, said the political parties, PDP, APC, or any other political party, should be fair to the South-East in the 2023 presidential election.
In 1999, he said, “Our Eastern person, Ogbonnaya Onu, stepped down for a Yoruba and eventually Obasanjo came in and won.” He noted that one good turn deserves another. “The strong must not continue to oppress the weak, because one day, the weak will take revenge,” he said.
Ohuabunwa appealed to other regions of the country to support the South-East by zoning their presidential candidates to the region. “Honestly speaking, I am in line with our people who said the South-East deserves to be the president of Nigeria after Buhari,” he said.
Former Commissioner for Information in Edo State, Kassim Afegbua, who is a PDP chieftain, described as immoral, the quest by former Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, a northerner, to continue to express interest in seeking election in the 2023 presidential election.
He said, “Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar cannot assume the role of a perpetual candidate or professional aspirant year in, year out, of the party as though the party was established for him alone.”
Afegbua advised Atiku to quit his quest for the presidency and support a southern Nigerian candidate in the spirit of fairness, equity, and justice that will assuage the feelings of stakeholders from the Southern part of Nigeria.
“For me, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar should quit his quest for the presidency and support a southern Nigerian candidate in the spirit of fairness, equity, and justice. That will assuage the feelings of stakeholders from the southern part of Nigeria.
“It will be against the run of play and natural justice for any aspirant of Northern extraction to show interest in the 2023 presidential election within the PDP threshold. It will offend national sentiments, emotions, and logic for anyone from the north to show such interest given our diversities and heterogeneous political configurations.
“Given PDP’s doctrine of political power balancing and fairness, it will be against its own unwritten rule to cede the ticket to any northern aspirant, least of all Alhaji Atiku Abubakar,” Afegbua said.
According to Afegbua, a Nigerian of southern extraction deserves to be given the unfettered opportunity to represent the party in the 2023 presidential contest.
Pressure now appears to be mounting more on the PDP after it conducted a successful national congress which produced a moderate northerner, Dr Iyorchia Ayu, as party chairman.
But recent pronouncements by some key players in the PDP suggest that the party might be considering a northerner to fly its presidential ticket once more, even though many have flayed the alleged attempt.
For the APC, it is still a long road ahead as the party has slated its convention for February 26, 2022, for its national convention. The party is split at all levels with members unable to agree on who their leaders are.
If the APC can hold a successful convention, the debate, as in the PDP, is expected to shift to which region between the north and south is best suited to fly its presidential flag in 2023.
Even before the issue of whether the north or south should present the next president is settled, the South-South and South-East are already battling the South-West to withdraw from the race.
Former Lagos State governor, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Publisher of Ovation magazine, Dele Momodu, and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, are three prominent Yoruba personalities from the South-West whose supporters are already canvassing voters’ support ahead of 2023.
