The Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai has lashed out at his colleagues from the southern region of the country for the manner they are going about their demand for a 2023 southern presidency.
The Governor who reiterated that any power shift or rotation for the presidency can’t come automatically, said negotiations should have preceded public demands by the Southern Governors.
He said during a chat with select journalists that the Southern Governors are playing wrong and foolish politics by demanding the presidency without any negotiation or agreement with the North.
El-Rufai’s submission comes after the Northern Governors at the end of their meeting in Kaduna on Monday also rejected the idea of a southern presidency in 2023, claiming the demand is unconstitutional.
El-Rufai while buttressing the position during his chat with newsmen, said while a southern presidency in 2023 is very possible, it won’t come by sitting in sitting in Lagos or Rivers and issuing demands or instructions.
“We are not saying there cannot be rotational presidency, it can be done but you have to come and sit with the politicians in the north and dialogue and then we agree to give our support to the south but no one has the right to sit in Lagos or Port Harcourt and say whether northerners want it or not, they must relinquish power to the south, that is wrong, it is not how we do politics and in fact, it is foolish,” Daily Trust reports him as saying.
In other news, a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Dr Salihu Lukman, says the ruling party may collapse after the exit of President Muhammadu Buhari from Aso Rock.
Naija News reports that Lukman, Director-General of the Progressives Governors Forum, stated this in an interview on a programme on African Independent Television (AIT) on Wednesday.
Lukman said the APC needs to strengthen its internal democracy and its members must be committed to the party’s ideology for the party not to collapse after the 2023 elections.
He added that for APC to remain in power and viable, the national leadership of the party must guide its members towards fully embracing progressive ideals for the party.
