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Malam Mamman Daura, President Muhammadu Buhari’s influential nephew, has underplayed zoning of 2023 presidency to any part of the country.
There have been wide perceptions that the presidency should be zoned to the South given that the North would have held sway for eight at the end of the current administration of President Buhari.
But Daura told BBC Hausa in an exclusive interview on Tuesday that Nigeria’s political space should be left open for the best candidate to emerge as president.
According to Daily Trust, he said since Nigerians had tried the rotational presidency about thrice already, it would be better to go for the most qualified candidate in 2023, irrespective of whether he comes from the North or South.
“Rotation has been done once, twice and three times; it is important that this nation should be united as one, the most qualified, competent should be elected and not someone who comes from a particular zone,” he said.
Reacting to allegations that he was the leader of the cabal in the Buhari Presidency and in response to questions about how he advises the President, he said, “Yes, I usually visit and offer advice. If he (Buhari) asks me, I offer advice but I don’t just go and tell him what to do; you don’t do that with the government.”
The President’s nephew’s statement, however, didn’t go without reactions. especially as regards the 2023 Presidency and power rotation.
Spokesperson of the pan-Yoruba socio-cultural group, Afenifere, Yinka Odumakin, told Daily Trust in an interview, the South was not unmindful of the fact that the North would want to have a shot again in the presidency after Buhari.
According to him, the South envisages many candidates to indicate interest in the presidency in 2023 but the country must stand firm and respect the zoning agreement.
“They (Northern candidates) would come out definitely but it is now left for the country to say whether they want to accept the move or they should insist on the common understanding that power should rotate between north and south.
“I heard him (Mamman Daura) talking about competence or whatever. In 2023, he would understand if there is anything called competence. We are watching how things unfold,” he said.
Odumakin said he expected the South to forge a common front when the time comes to ensure that the presidency returned to the region in 2023.
The Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) said yesterday the issue of rotational presidency is not a constitutional matter but only adopted by political parties for their own convenience.
The ACF National Publicity Secretary, Emmanuel Yawe, responding to Daura’s statement, said, “the Nigerian constitution does not make provision for rotational presidency; it is done at the convenience of political parties and not a constitutional practice. There is nowhere in the Nigerian constitution where there is provision for rotation.”
Yawe further said if political parties on their own decided to jettison rotational presidency, they have the right to do so.
