By Gideon Njoku
From a surprising corner comes a strong support for a power shift to the Southern part of Nigeria in 2023.
Kaduna state Governor, Malam Nasir El-Rufai, says the next President of Nigeria should come from Southern Nigeria. El-Rufai is a self-professed Buharist, and one of the intellectual engine rooms of the North. He is also a technocrat.
Until now, most people thought he had his eyes on the Presidential seat in 2023; that he had been planning and lobbying for it.
But El-Rufai shocked not a few people when he denied interest in the 2023 Presidency.
Speaking on a BBC Hausa service on Saturday, El-Rufai said he would never support a candidate from the North to succeed President Muhammadu Buhari in 2023.
He said people had been saying, since he was the FCT Minister, that he was eyeing the Presidency, but that everybody was wrong; and that he still has no such ambition in 2023.
El-Rufai: “In Nigerian politics, there is a system of rotation in which everyone agrees that if the North rules for eight years, the South will rule for eight years.
“That is why I came out and said that after President Buhari has been in the office, no Northerner should run for office. Let the Southerners also have eight years.
“It has been said that I have loved the Presidency since I was a Minister in the FCT.
This is nonsense. I do not want the Nigerian Presidency.”
El-Rufai has joined a number of other voices in the North, clamouring for a shift of power from the North to the South. They include elder statesman, Tanko Yakassai, and former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Babachir Lawal. These voices join many from the South who insist it is only fair that power rotates to the South.
However, speculations are rife that some power blocs are skimming for the pairing of Ekiti State Governor, Kayode Fayemi, and El-Rufai, to be the APC Presidential and Vice Presidential candidate respectively.
Said a strong supporter of the two: “It is a combination nobody can be ignore.”
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