Tobias Sylvester
Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai has said that the Southern part of the country should produce the next president in the forthcoming 2023 general elections.
In an interview with BBC Hausa on Saturday, El-Rufai said he does not support the idea that a northerner should contest for the seat after President Muhammadu Buhari’s tenure.
The governor who explained that he supports the idea of zoning which has been in existence in Nigeria politics, also denied he has ambition to contest for presidency.
“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,” El-Rufai said.
“That is why I came out and said that after President Buhari has been in office for eight years, no northerner should run for office. Let the Southerners also have eight years.
“If you look at how I am, I don’t take anyone to work with me for the zone he came from. The eligibility I look at is if who is entrusted to the public will hold it properly.
“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. God gives power, whether you like it or not, if He wants it, He will give it to you, but I have never sought the presidency of Nigeria, no one can say I have ever sought it.”
Meanwhile, a former PDP national chairman, Dr. Okwesilieze Nwodo, has declared that Ndigbo would seek Biafra secession from Nigeria if South-East does not produce the president of the country in 2023.
